Another Realm VIII: Twilight
by Kat-2V
Summary: The Collectors have been dealt with, Shepard's run back to her precious Alliance, and I finally managed to foist off the Director's position onto someone else. After far too many years at war, it's finally time to relax a little before the Reapers show up... or it would be if Miranda Lawson hadn't tracked us down to help her in dealing with yet another crisis. The fun never ends.
1. Operation: Peacekeeping I

**Another Realm VIII: Twilight**

* * *

 _ _ **Oh Voya... I didn't realize how much I missed you, you furry little sadistic sociopath.**__

 _ _ **So yeah, I'm back writing ME, and rather than recapping, we're just going right into things. Twilight is going to be shorter than the other stories in both chapter count and chapter length, primarily because it's main purpose is to serve as a bridge between Hellhounds and Gotterdammerung. We'll have four operations in total: Peacekeeping, The Return, Long Echoes, and Sound of Silence.**__

 _ _ **The only points of view we will be getting will be Cieran and Voya, and they'll be alternating throughout the story. Additional world building and scene setting will take place in post-chapter sections as per the old days.**__

 ** _ _Thanks as usual to the Blocked Writer for serving as my beta and sticking around despite the long hiatus. Hopefully you'll all enjoy this story as much as the prior ones, and will stick around as we near the end of this long tale.__**

* * *

 **Operation I: Peacekeeping**

 _Three months after the destruction of the Collector Base_

* * *

 **Silent Witness**

 _Voya'kean vas Xentha_

* * *

"I think I'm starting to understand your 'honeymoon' concept." I mused, ignoring the ineffectual flailing as hands tried to grab my armor, desperately trying to push me away. "This is really quite enjoyable."

My new bondmate sighed across our helmet comms, his quiet voice pensive as he slowly prowled through the demolished office space. As always his armored coat was far less blood coated than my own, the dark navy and silver coloration thrown into sharp relief in the dull glow from the emergency lights. "I don't think I explained it very well."

I simply shrugged, adjusted the angle of my knife a bit, and continued slowly pressing into the Corsair's chest, entirely enjoying the new pitch it lent to his howling. "It's spending time together doing things we're both passionate about, isn't it? And isn't that exactly what we're doing?"

There was a gunshot as Cieran neatly executed a wounded hypocrite who'd been trying to cower behind a desk. "True, but it's usually just lots of sex and drinking."

"We did that _before_ the High Elder's little game made everything official." I reminded him, cocking my head a little as the man under me let out a final rattling scream before going limp. Twisting the blade slightly just to ensure his heart was properly opened, I withdrew it as I rose, stretching my back with a pleased little groan. "Though I'll admit killing my whore of an aunt was far more fun than this was."

"For you maybe." Cieran said, his helmet shaking as he kicked a downed human to make sure they were dead. He must have heard or seen something, because he put a round through their throat before continuing, "Being ambushed by an assassin at dinner and then stuck in a two day running fight through the Old District wasn't really how I wanted to spend the start of my vacation."

I scoffed, stepping over the corpse before moving into the cubicles, returning my blades to their sheaths. My hand cannon, a smaller copy of Cieran's brutal design, was up and ready a moment later as I began checking them one at a time. "Liar. You knew exactly what we'd be doing as soon we picked Xentha."

"Well... maybe." He allowed with a sigh, pistol following his visor as he stalked down the row opposite me, "But I thought we'd get at least two, maybe even three weeks off."

My eyes rolled, then fixed on a quivering form hiding beneath a desk. A single gunshot resolved the problem, and I continued on, "It's not like I didn't make it up to you."

There was a cough from my helmet's speakers as our third member joined the conversation, " _She's got a point Cie."_

My new bondmate shook his head as we reached the end of the aisle, his lanky form pulling back slightly as he drove a boot into a closed door. No one screamed on the other side of the corner office, and he lowered his pistol as he backed away. "I suppose you did."

"Suppose?" I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. "You have any idea how sore I was after that second week?"

Cieran glanced over his shoulder as we started our return to the central stairwell. "You were the one who was determined to get over her intimacy issues via constant effort."

" _He's got a point Voya."_ Shyeel drawled, as always more interested in poking us both and seeing what happened than in actually picking a side.

"Shut up." I hissed at her, "How many more floors do we have to go?"

"Just the one." Cie replied, lazily checking the next hallway inside the office building. "Shyeel, how's our exit?"

Our old friend let out an annoyed sound across the comms, " _Still no sign of anyone trying to get out the back... and they've learned to stay away from the windows. I'm bored as fuck out here."_

"We can tell, and I told you to come in with us." I countered.

"Settle down." Cieran ordered calmly, "Miranda, you still watching the other ways in and out?"

" _Yes, we are."_ The genetically engineered woman replied, her Thessian finally starting to gain a bit of Ilium's crisper edge, " _We're also growing concerned at how slowly you're both proceeding. Could you perhaps indulge less in your sadistic habits?"_

I let out a little snort, "You're the one who begged us to help with this when we're supposed to be on vacation."

Miranda Lawson scoffed, " _It took me less than thirty seconds to convince you, Chi."_

"Kean." I corrected absently as Cieran and I reached the stairs. He checked them, ducked back as an assault rifle opened fire from above, then selected a grenade from his belt... and I narrowed my eyes to annoyed slits at the sight of his choice. "Cie, I'd rather the building not burn down around us."

His helmet shifted as he gave me a long look, then he seemed to sigh before changing his pick and tossing it in. There was dull thud from the standard fragmentation grenade as it went off, then he was gone in a blur of motion, heavy trench coat flaring around him as he charged forwards.

I sprinted in after him, but his stupidly long Human legs gave him an advantage on the stairs. He took them two at a time at a rush, executing a stunned and bleeding marine with a head-shot as he moved around a small landing, then kept going up and onto the next floor... where more gunfire promptly erupted as he exited the stairwell.

Cieran being Cieran, he promptly replied in kind with his pistol in one direction, and threw another grenade in the other while still moving forwards. I caught up just in time to see him charge into an open room across the hall, his shoulder ramming into a female marine, arm parrying her rifle aside before his pistol was pressed against her chest.

I made it out the stairwell just in time to see the grenade go off, several plain-clothes Corsairs already trying to fling themselves away. Their limited kinetic barriers kept two of the three alive, but they were still trying to recover from the effects when I reached them.

The male of the pair was quicker, drawing my attention as his shotgun came up. A stutter-step to the right, and a probable concussion from the explosion, saw his shot tear a hole in the drywall rather than coming anywhere near me. Unfortunately for him, my pistol fire was far more accurate, three bloody eruptions stitching their way across his chest as I put him down.

His female companion saw him die, staring at his corpse and the man beyond, and threw her weapon aside with shaking hands. "I s-surrender!"

I didn't bother responding to that drivel, putting a round through her left eye instead. "Entry area on floor ten, clear. Four dead."

" _Confirmed."_ Lawson said in response, " _Any sign of the primary target?"_

Cieran replied for us, "No, no sign of the bitch. Count?"

" _No more than a half-dozen remaining."_

He clicked his mic once, then gallantly rolled a hand in my direction, letting me take the lead. I licked my lips inside my helmet, bowing my head slightly before setting off, following the helpful signs towards the CEO's office.

"Just remember that we need her alive." My bondmate reminded me as we walked, my visor flickering through vision modes as I checked for traps of any kind.

"You mean Lawson needs her alive." I replied, reaching back with my left hand. "Demo."

"Just remember, and try to restrain yourself." Cieran moved up behind me, casually aiming his pistol over my shoulder while his other hand helped me pull a charge off of my back.

"I know." I growled back, accepting the device and setting it with a few quick movements of my fingers. "Just because I don't have a greybox in my head doesn't mean you need to constantly state the obvious."

There was a soft of amusement, "What can I say, you're more attractive when you're annoyed."

" _Bosh'tet_..." I muttered, tossing the charge underhand before bringing my omni-tool up. Triggering my cloaking system as the same time as it affixed itself to the door, there was just enough time before it detonated for me to hug the left wall, while Cieran took cover in the secretary's recessed little space.

As usual our paranoia was entirely justified as gunfire roared through the smoke as the doors were flung inwards by the blast, and at least two grenades went skipping by to detonate far behind us while I moved forwards and Cie remained quietly still.

"Hold fire!" A woman shouted a few seconds after the grenades went off, the air clearing to reveal a firing line setup on the far side of the expansive office. What little furniture had been pointlessly arranged in a semi-circle, but far more important were the armored shutters over the windows, and the massive desk that remained upright in the center of the formation.

That one would probably have internal armor, if not actual kinetic barriers.. and would be where our target would be cowering.

"Kean!" The same woman shouted from her hiding place, her guards, a mix of men and women in business clothes and in actual armor, keeping their weapons aimed but not firing as I slowly moved into the room. "I know you're out there you son of a bitch!"

"Miss Bauer." Cieran replied, voice amplified by his helmet's speakers. "Thank you for stating the obvious."

Hypocritical ass.

"You'll die for this!" She snapped back, "Attacking Alliance property? Murdering Alliance citizens!? Earth will raze your pathetic little colony to the bedrock!"

"Maybe." He drawled, "But I doubt they will, especially since your little operation here is even less legal than this little brawl we have going on."

"Don't you dare try that legal technicality bullshit!"

I tuned out the rest of the ranting, and there was a _lot_ of it to tune out as Cieran gleefully played his part in keeping everyone pissed off, leaving me with plenty of time to find my way over to the nearest shutter and inspect it. A glance at my timer showed two minutes before the cloak failed, and a similar check of my rear-camera showed no one even looking behind them.

Opening the small console was simple enough, and I clicked my mic twice once I was ready. There was two answering clicks in response, one from each of my companions, and then a gentle flick of my left long finger saw the armored shutters abruptly begin retracting.

"What the hell!?" The nearest marine squawked, whirling around and lunging desperately for the controls.

My pistol rammed into his throat just as he got there, dark red blood fountaining out both sides as I pulled the trigger. The splatters ruined the cloak, not that the system had much left in it, and I quickly grabbed onto the twitching corpse as his friends turned and opened fire. The body jerked as it was struck, making me hiss in annoyance before the window behind me exploded into shards.

The harpoon from Shyeel's Kishok all but decapitated the next closest Corsair, and then lightning played over the far side of the room as Cieran began deploying overload mines.

Tossing the body aside as the situation grew pleasingly chaotic, I cut left, snap-firing at the nearest target; a pale skinned male without armor whose barriers took two shots as he frantically returned fire, the rounds from his SMG playing over my shields. My third pull of the trigger ended the uneven duel, gutting him nicely long before he could get close to piercing my initial layer of protection.

Vaulting his convulsing form, I was aiming at the last person on this side of the room when Shyeel fired again, killing the Human female before I could.

"Thief." I hissed in irritation, a blur of motion seeing me throw myself to the left just as another woman put two rounds from a light pistol into my shields.

My eyes narrowed as I saw the hideously expensive business suit over lightly browned skin, lips peeled furiously back from teeth as our target kept shooting at me. Planting my left foot, I reversed course, charging her and dropping my pistol as I did.

Her own eyes widened as she saw light glisten along my daggers, feet backpedaling before she smacked into her own desk. The pistol barked five more times, the last penetrating my barriers only to harmlessly skip off the technical plating that snapped to life as my armor recognized my vulnerability.

Then... the bitch impressed me.

Throwing her weapon at my head, she yanked a stun baton from her stylish coat and neatly deflected my first slash, then kicked herself back and onto her desk. She hissed in pain as I caught her along the back when she twisted away, but kept her footing when she came down, little weapon up as I promptly pursued.

She continued to fall back as my daggers swung, my focus entirely on my prey, both of us ignoring Cieran and Shyeel finishing off the others.

Her baton cracked against my technical panels, a blade lightly lashing her left arm in response. More red flowed as I kept on the offensive, adding cuts to her shoulder, hip, and belly as she began to falter, trying to hit me over the head and neck, knowing it was her only chance. But she had only the one weapon, and all of her determination meant shit against the decades I'd spent honing my craft.

It ended after the third minute when I accepted another failing strike against my torso, and took her right hand as payment.

There was a breathless scream as she dropped, clutching at her stump as blood spurted out.

"Voya." Cieran stated reprovingly, grabbing her by the hair and flinging her none too gently onto her back. A knee pinned her good arm onto the ground, freeing his hands to pull out a small medical kit with a tourniquet and medigel... then he paused before a fist blurred down to deck her hard in the face.

She went limp, eyes rolling, her jaw unresistant when Cieran yanked it open. A second's inspection later had him pulling a false tooth out, tossing a capsule away.

"See?" I told him, voice a little breathless, my heart still thrumming with the enjoyment of the fight. She may not have been truly skilled enough to be worthy, but it had been a while since I'd seen someone so determined to fight out of their league. "She's alive... and I stunned her long enough so she couldn't suicide."

"Mmhmm."

I licked my lips as I considered her prone form, watching as Cie got to work so she wouldn't bleed to death. Not skilled... but determined to fight, to try and take someone down with her, and then ready to end her own life... "I think I want her."

He paused his ministrations, reaching over to rip her shirt open slightly. A tug ripped a necklace free, and I caught it when he tossed it my way. My visor automatically translated the little Human symbols, and I mewled in a pleased fashion as I pocketed the trophy.

"Thank you, love."

Cieran chuckled softly, but when he spoke his words were directed to our new prisoner as she slowly recovered. "Lieutenant Commander Helga Bauer, AIS Corsair program. I assume you know who we are."

"...pirates." The woman rasped, flinching as he tightened the tourniquet. "...assassins. You... won't get away... with this."

He hummed, "When do the Corsairs plan to move against the SBC, and against Ul Tirravan? And how did you find Lawson's little base?"

"...fuck... you!"

"I don't really go for my own species." Cieran said, getting off of her as he checked his work. "Lawson, we've got the package, do you have the demo charges in place?"

" _In place and set."_ Came the instant answer, " _EVA assures me that the local net has been brought down and all security scrambled. You're clear to exit."_

* * *

 _ **Interview of Councilor**_ _ _ **Jorge Gunddarsen by Emily Wong**__

 _ _Wong, E: As Humanity's new Councilor and representative on the Citadel, do you have a statement on the recent rash of terrorist attacks in the Traverse?__

 _ _Councilor Gunddarsen: Of course. The rash of violent incidents involving Human business concerns in the Attican Traverse are of course deeply troubling, and the loss of life tragic, and I have sponsored a relief bill that was passed just this morning.__

 _ _Wong, E: I'm sure the Alliance citizens will be greatly relieved to hear that sir. But what of the rumors that Terminus actors or pirate factions may be behind these?__

 _ _Councilor Gunddarsen: I will admit it is possible, but we have yet to see any definitive proof as to who is responsible. It could just as easily, and my own advisers tell me it is in fact likely, that these acts are being undertaken by the Batarian and Turian majorities of that region who... do not view the Alliance kindly.__

 _ _Wong, E: But Councilor, there are many reports that describe these attacks as clinical, precise, and thorough. Could the SBC, or Cerberus's remnants, be involved?__

 _ _Councilor Gunddarsen: If what is left of that terrorist group was involved, I'm sure they would have been pointing fingers at aliens and demanding action by now... and I trust that Director ul Massa would not be so stupid as to provoke Council action so shortly after our treaty was signed.__

 _ _Wong, E: Is there any motion within the Council to dispatch investigators, or as Parliament is demanding, a Spectre?__

 _ _Councilor Gunddarsen: I assure you that we are investigating all possible options to learn the truth Miss Wong.__

* * *

 _ _ **Author's Notes;**__

 _ _ **For those not aware, my personal situation remains less than ideal due to a combination of work stress, pending divorce, the latter causing me to need to sell my home forcing me to constantly come and go for showings, and a bunch of other factors that I won't bore you with.**__

 _ _ **I wasn't actually planning on even starting this story for another month or two, when things hopefully died down, but Aberron (of Living an Indoctrinated Dream) was able to give me a bit of inspiration to get started. I can't and won't promise that it will last or that chapters will come out for this or for my RWBY story at anything resembling a steady rate anytime soon.**__

 _ _ **I may go off on another Student of Vacuo/AR: Arrival/Semper Victoria style tear and churn out an entire story inside of a month or two, but it could be just as likely that you won't hear from me for another six or seven weeks, just thought that I would warn you all.**__

 _ _ **Hopefully what does come out will be high quality enough that you all can enjoy it, writing remains my main source of relaxation and escapism right now, so I'm not about to give up or stop.**__

 ** _ **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**_**

 _ _ **Thanks, Kat**__


	2. Operation: Peacekeeping II

**Operation: Peacekeeping**

* * *

 **The Silver Blade**

 _Cieran Kean_

* * *

I walked into the SR-2's conference room, my pipe already in my mouth as I let the auto-ignitor set the _chehala_ leaves to smoldering.

"Must you always smoke?" Miranda complained in English as she looked up from a tablet, looking as professional as ever in her Cerberus officer's uniform.

"Kind of my thing." I mumbled around the wood, enjoying the strong vanilla flavor before exhaling and pulling it away so I could speak clearly in my usual cool Thessian. "I'll stop smoking when you actually put chairs in here."

To my surprise she merely rolled her eyes rather than tell me off or threaten me, instead simply crossing her arms and moving on. "Your wife is not joining us? Ah, you have both my congratulations and condolences by the way."

"Thank you." I replied dryly, "And no, she's messing with her armor right now. No Chambers?"

A muscle in her cheek twitched. "She is currently... entertaining Miss T'Voth."

I snorted and took a puff of my pipe, "That didn't take long."

"Quite." She sighed, "Regardless, we do have additional matters to discuss. I remain in the unfortunate position of still needing your assistance."

"More covert attacks on the Alliance?" I guessed, "Can't imagine Shepard would be all that thrilled to help, so I suppose I can understand why you asked us."

Miranda shook her head slightly, "To be entirely honest I would have likely requested your aid regardless of the target. While Shepard is far more accomplished and skilled," I gave her an annoyed look that she ignored entirely, "You ask far fewer questions, have few if any moral qualms, and generally prefer to follow rather than lead.. Which neatly removes the eternal problem of working with Shepard, where she always attempts to take over whatever operation she is involved in."

"...your inspirational speeches remain crap, Miranda."

She snorted, "And despite the fact that you're an asshole, for reasons beyond my comprehension I have begun to consider you something like a friend. I respect your opinions, especially on matters in the darker regions of space and society."

"Hmm..." I hummed around my pipe, puffing a few more times. "I suppose I can work with that. You're a little too top heavy for my tastes, but I'll accept something like friendship."

"We all can't be as flat as your wife." She replied with a small smirk, "Regardless, we can needle one another later. For now we have matters to discuss."

I waved my pipe in agreement, "The Corsair thing?"

"That can come later." Shifting her tablet aside, a single flick across its screen transferred the information to the table's display. "I would rather begin with the fact I am being harassed by Shepard, Ul Massa, and too many other individuals who all seem to think they have a divine right to my attention and services. One of those is obviously more relevant to you than the others."

The sound I made next wasn't quite an apology but it was something close, "Ah. Ayle made you her pitch then?"

Her brilliant eyes narrowed a little. "You knew?"

"She asked my opinion a few weeks ago, when I called to say to our vacation was ending sooner than I planned." I admitted as my own lips twitched downwards, "I told her I doubted you'd go for it, but that I didn't see any harm in asking."

It was Miranda's turn to make a quiet noise in her throat, her finger tapping on the rich wood of the table. "...speaking logically, her proposal has a great deal of merit but there are complicating factors."

"The fact that you don't much like her?" I guessed.

"That," she agreed, "As well as the political structure of the SBC, and the fact that she is willing to make so many concessions before true negotiations begin has me rather concerned."

That made me snort, "So you want to interrogate me about just what Ayle could possibly be gaining?"

"Please." She shook her head, "I trust that she tells you as little as she thinks she can get away with, and you hardly bother to inquire further out of fear of incurring actual work to do."

I couldn't disagree with that, so I simply shrugged. "So far as I know it's an up front proposal. We're not on the best terms with the Shadow Broker and the Traverse is a fucked up place that we're not used to. Ayle wants an intelligence service, and she wants one as soon as possible. You've got one already setup, she wants to bring you in, and she's willing to make lots of concessions to make that happen."

Though honestly I was mostly in the dark as to what those concessions all entailed. Several probably involved Humanity as a species getting some kind of special cultural protections or something, and I was equally sure that others would focus on Miranda herself and her organization and the degree of autonomy that they would be granted.

Miranda pursed her lips, clearly not quite ready to agree, but clearly still considering it. Not that I could blame her, her splinter faction was having a rough go of independence, with the STG, AIS, SIU, various pirate groups, at least one Spectre, and Harper's half of Cerberus all gunning for her now that the Collectors were clearly done with. After all, an independent, pseudo-terrorist organization controlling two artificial intelligence, a stealth cruiser, and who had a sizable spy network in the Attican Traverse was rightly viewed as a threat by damn near everyone.

And while she might have a solid little crew on this ship... she'd lost too many of her best people at the Collector base. Three months later and she was still crippled by a lack of truly loyal manpower, relying primarily on disconnected agents who didn't realize they were feeding her their intel.

"I will continue to consider it." She said eventually, "But speaking bluntly, I have little interest in answering directly to Ul Massa."

I shrugged, exhaling more smoke. "She's an acquired taste."

Miranda let out a prim little snort, but rather than start up another argument about my old friend and her management style, she tactfully elected to move on. "That is certainly one way to describe her."

I could only shrug once more; the matter was between the two of them, and I wasn't about to get involved. She watched me for a moment, then resumed when it was clear that I didn't really have anything else to say on the matter. "Setting that aside, yes, I do wish to discuss our next operation against the Corsairs and AIS."

"There's going to be another one?"

"There may be several." She admitted, "But one of them certainly has priority. The last mission gave me the final pieces I needed to confirm what is occurring, and the reluctant certainty that they have to be stopped."

She certainly didn't sound thrilled about this, which gave me further knowledge as to why she'd asked for our help. For all of her tough talk Miranda wasn't quite as far away from Shepard's irritating idealism as she liked to portray. Oh sure, she was a bit more capable than the Spectre in regards to hardening herself to do what she thought necessary regardless of any moral or personal qualms, but that didn't mean she _enjoyed_ having to do so.

In contrast she knew full well that absolutely no one in the Silver Blades, myself very much included, cared at all for the hypocritical assholes that were the Corsairs. Bringing us in meant she could simply sit back and plan the operation, then entrust to people she knew would thoroughly get the job done, and get it done without hesitation.

"What did you get from the dear lieutenant?" I asked.

"About what I expected." She replied, waving at the text floating before us. "There are a great many in the AIS, and the Corsairs especially, who are not a fan of the new government's priorities. They are agitating for a stronger presence and push into the Traverse."

I waved my pipe slightly, trailing smoke around. "Not sure I see the point. Tirravan and Besaid are following Aria's lead, at least for the moment. They're only raiding independent colonies and former Hegemony turf, no big names are touching Alliance assets out of fear of what Aria or Lady T'Ravt would do to them."

"Yes," Miranda agreed, "The lack of a _casus beli_ is evidently driving many of said Alliance officers quite mad. They seem to be operating under the belief that two warlords, plus your Ul Massa, and potentially even the remains of the Hegemony intend to unite the entire Traverse under a Batarian banner."

The sheer absurdity of that made me laugh, "Seriously?"

Her eyes rolled, "I'm quite sure they would give you a long list of potential plans that are heavy on the paranoia and light on facts. The fact that all three such Warlords cordially detest one another, and largely don't care for the newest Hegemon is, of course, irrelevant."

I hummed a little. So far as I knew, Balak was nowhere near as hated as his predecessor was, or as the High Patriarch had been before him, but he definitely wasn't popular either. His Batarian supremacist views were equally wrapped up in his patriotism for his country, and he had very little use for exiles who had gone pirate, dared attack or outright occupied what he still considered Hegemony worlds... and worse, allowed aliens to sit in positions of power in their fleets.

I gave him even odds of consolidating the Hegemony into something stable, but they sure as fuck wouldn't have any friends around when the Reapers showed up. Still, that was hardly the main concern right now.

"Don't tell me," I sighed, finally extinguishing my pipe to her evident relief, "They're going to do something stupid and provocative, aren't they?"

"According to my information, they want to assassinate one or both of the primary _Ha'diq_ in a false-flag operation to incite conflict between their organizations. If they can cause further disruptions to entirely destabilize the smaller groups as well, so much the better."

"Of course they do." I groaned, reaching up to rub at a temple. "Athame's azure... all right, what are the details?"

Miranda laid it out for me, letting me glance through the various files that she'd gotten on our little raid and one she'd done on her own last month.

As much as it annoyed me to admit, their plan wasn't a horrible one. It started way back when the Alliance had first laid down their new stealth ships, the _SR-5_ and _SR-6_ having been redesigned in the wake of Shepard's experiences with the original _Normandy._ But the cruiser sized ships and their titanic eezo cores had been expensive as hell, and they'd fallen victim to the many budget cuts ordered when the government had changed after the Geth War.

The _SR-6_ _Tarawa_ had been ordered scrapped by a company that turned out to be a Cerberus front, and had been instead covertly stolen away and turned into the _Normandy_ I was currently standing within. At some point during the Cerberus hunt, someone in the SA had grown a brain and realized what had happened, and someone higher in the food chain had ordered the _SR-5_ finished as some kind of counter-force.

While a lot of people sensibly wanted to give the _Gallipoli,_ now undergoing a rapid shake-down run, to either Shepard or Williams, the AIS had prevailed to get their corrupt hands on it instead. Shocking no one, they had promptly put the Butcher of Torfan in command, which was as aggravating as it was unsurprising.

"So they find out that Besaid and Tirravan are holding a meeting early next month, an actual face to face to discuss the division of their territory and coordinated raids on the Hegemony." I shook my head as the pieces fell together. "There will be plenty of Relay traffic as a result, easy to miss a stealth ship coming through. Then they just glide in, align themselves next to someone's ship... and then moment is right, obliterate whatever target presents itself."

"Ideally Tirravan's flagship." Miranda agreed, "Even more ideally, while the meeting is taking place so that both warlords are killed. The infighting that would result would likely cripple both nascent organizations for years, if not decades, and they have other agents in place to further incite conflict as soon as the signal is given."

I grunted, "Not a bad plan if the Reapers weren't right around the corner."

"Yes." She exhaled the word as though she didn't care for the taste of it, "In normal circumstances I would be more than happy to allow them to continue with this, but in addition to our needing the pirates to be organized and ready for war, they've been sloppy in the planning stages."

"Someone else found out?"

She nodded, "My last operation, the one prior to picking you up from Xentha, revealed that the SIU is likely aware of the plan and is letting it go forwards in advance of pointing the blame at the Alliance."

"Balak..." I muttered. "That asshole. He'd be happy to trade pirate and human lives to buy time for the Hegemony to stabilize now that he's in power."

"Quite. I attempted to warn the AIS and Corsairs via a few old friends, but found my warnings disregarded entirely."

I frowned. "Seriously?"

She shrugged, "Those few that did believe that the SIU may be aware considered that a _good_ thing. A mass pirate attack on the Verge or other Alliance territory could spark mass reprisals and additional building plans on top of those already underway."

"Ah, the idiots who think we have years to decades then." I shook my head. "Democracy in action."

Miranda glowered at me, "Please do not espouse the benefits of dictatorship right now, I'm not in the mood."

I gave her a little bow and tilt of my head to show my surrender, which only made her glower worsen for a few moments before she continued on. "In either case, we can hardly afford that level of conflict with all of the other machinations in play. Too many groups would take advantage of the chaos, the Leviathans and Reapers first and foremost."

"Plus the pirates might make good cannon fodder when the real war starts."

"I will not contest the point." She shrugged, "Regardless, I desire your help in stopping the operation before it can truly begin."

I nodded slightly, "I still can't say I'm enthused, I'd sooner still be on vacation... but if I say no you're just going to go to Voya and she's going to overrule me."

"Quite." Her dark expression shifted a little, something like a smile briefly appearing before she killed it. "Our counter play is as simple as their own plan of action. The _Gallipoli_ is to be relocated to the new Corsair base on Horizon in the next week, in advance of being fully fitted for the upcoming action. We are going to commandeer it."

Both of my eyebrows shot up in surprise. "...we're going to steal an Alliance cruiser?"

"You object?"

"Fuck no." I shook my head, "Just surprised you're being that bold. That's the kind of crap that could see them actually send a few Specters to hunt you down."

Miranda gave me a cool smile that made my guard snap up. "Unless someone else ends up in possession of the vessel, someone currently operating under the aegis of the Turian Hierarchy."

"You can't be serious."

She lifted an eyebrow. "I am entirely serious. You can't tell me that you're unaware of the fact that Ul Massa is already violating your agreement with the Council by establishing deep space outposts."

I winced. "Technically that's not violating anything, no one owns deep space... and by certain definitions they're still within Novgorod's solar system."

There was a prim little snort, "My point is that you could easily conceal the ship there, and you know as well as I that I do that your leader would be more than thrilled to receive a stealth cruiser as a gift."

"...she'd probably throw herself at you out of sheer excitement." I admitted, privately enjoying the rather disgusted _moue_ that ran across her face at the very notion. "And I suppose we could hide it, for a little while anyway. If nothing else we could drag out legal proceedings about returning it until the Reapers show up. After that it will hardly matter anymore."

"Precisely." She nodded, "We will obviously have to conduct this raid in a clandestine fashion, preferably in such a way that the ship simply vanishes with no leads as to who took it."

I grunted in agreement. "All right. Let me go grab Voya and see if Shyeel is done getting Chambers' off, then we'll start seriously planning this out."

"Very well."

* * *

 _ **Silver Blade Communication Logs**_

 _T'Laria, Trena: I still can't believe you didn't invite us to the goddess-damned ceremony. I'm supposed to be your best friend!_

 _Kean, Cieran: Trena, we literally walked in, signed a document, then went and got drunk. There was no ceremony... and you've been bitching about this for more than a month now._

 _T'Laria, Trena: I'm going to bitch about it until the day you die ape, get used to it._

 _Kean, Cieran: ...whatever, why are you calling? We're about to go start a war, don't really have time to chat._

 _T'Laria, Trena: ...you're going to start a war without me too?_

 _Kean, Cieran: Goddess... look, I'll give you the details later. How is Illyan doing?_

 _T'Laria, Trena: That's what I'm calling about. She's still out, but the docs are more confident. They're planning on waking her up in a couple weeks and you'd better fucking be here for that. All three of you._

 _Kean, Cieran: We will, don't worry. This shit shouldn't take long._

 _T'Laria, Trena: And don't get fucking killed either! I'm not doing that conversation with her when she wakes up._

 _Kean, Cieran: Relax, we're just stealing a ship and probably killing an uptight asshole in the process. Nothing too major._

 _T'Laria, Trena; You literally just fucking said you're about to start a war with this shit._

 _User: Kean, Cieran has disconnected._

 _T'Laria, Trena; I fucking hate it when you do that._

* * *

 _ _ **Author's Notes;**__

 _ _ **I am now officially divorced... yay? I guess? Eh, either way my personal situation remains fluid thanks to having to move out of my house in advance of a sale, and a constant stream of bad news in regards to the house I'm trying to buy. So yeah, still no firm time frame on when I'll really be able to sit down and finally finish this series off.**__

 _ _ **But at least here's another chapter, right? Here we get the core of the plan for the first stage of this particular story and a few glimpses as to what is going on within the Traverse. I know it's slower and entirely setup, but it's stuff that had to get out. I tried to make it as non-info dumpy as possible.**__

 ** _ **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**_**

 _ _ **Thanks, Kat**__


	3. Operation: Peacekeeping III

**Operation I: Peacekeeping**

* * *

 _ **Silent Witness**_

 _Voya'kean vas Xentha_

* * *

I realized that I wasn't being a particularly good wife not too long after we slipped aboard Horizon's orbital station, right around the time where our infiltration team was waiting in the utility corridor nearest to the target ship for the go signal.

Where I was entirely enjoying myself and looking forwards to once again bloodying the arrogant little _keshin_ that made up the Corsair ranks... I'd only slowly realized that Cieran wasn't particularly enthused about all of this. He certainly wasn't objecting verbally or slowing us down or anything to stupid, but I knew him well enough to know when he was disinterested.

That had taken me a bit by surprise when I'd first puzzled that out. He'd been the one to come to us with the news of the mission after all. But his body language and lack of usual dark cheer at the notion of humiliating the Corsairs were telling me more than enough. I didn't think that he was against the mission so much as I thought he was against _us_ being the ones doing it.

And that was leaving me feeling rather guilty, something that I did not care for in the slightest.

And also annoyed, half at myself for not seeing through Cieran's less than stellar acting abilities, half at him for being such a typically idiot male that he'd forgone simply _talking_ with me about the matter.

"...what do I do?" I asked, double-checking that the line was private between myself and Shyeel.

The Asari hummed as she checked her carbine, slowly replacing it on her back as she spoke, "Well, I'd suggest not dragging your new bondmate out on another kill or be killed mission a whole three weeks after you made it official."

I gave her a dark look that my visor entirely hid, "Not. Helping."

Shyeel shrugged, "Not trying to. Look Voya, Cie wanted a vacation, and between dealing with your family, dealing with that suitor, dealing with the Elders, running off to negotiate with T'Ravt for Ayle, and now being stuck helping Cerberus, how much vacation did we really have?"

" _You_ had plenty of a vacation."

Her helmet shifted to make it clear that she was rolling her eyes. "How much of a bloody vacation did _he_ have?"

"There was a week or two in there where we didn't do anything." I tried to defend myself, though I knew it wasn't anything like what he'd wanted. "And it isn't as though he's protested about any of this. If he'd said something I'd have-"

"Talked him into doing it anyway." She shook her head. "Voya, let's be honest here. Cieran is an submissive _idiot_ when it comes to women, especially women he's sleeping with, and you like things like this. In what galaxy would he have seriously tried to stop you?"

"He has before." I pointed out irritably. "He stopped me from going on hunts or doing bounty missions all the time."

"Yeah, because we were drowning in other shit and he thought you were about five seconds away from losing it." She countered. "Now we have nothing but time and he's twice as invested in keeping you happy, so _of course_ he didn't try and get some Nightblades or Lancers out here instead of us."

I felt tongue flick nervously over my lips as I glanced at Cieran, and found him still patiently leaning against the wall beside Lawson. From the slight movements of their helmets, they had their own conversation going, probably related to the actual mission. "...what do I do? I'm not good at this."

Her arms crossed her chest. "And I am?"

"You're five centuries older than me." I growled. "You're at least more experienced."

Shyeel let out an irritated sound at my reference to her age, "Bitch, you know I hate it when you call me old... look, we're pretty much stuck right now so this isn't the time to be worrying about it."

"There's a dozen crew members plus the Butcher on board." I countered, "We could handle that in our sleep and that's less important than this either way."

"Tell _him_ that instead of me." She responded, "Maybe right before you go down on him or something. Human males love that don't they?"

He did, but the nature of that particular act wasn't something I was always up for. Not that Cieran ever asked for me to do that or anything else, he was entirely content to let me set the pace in every regard when it came to our sex life, something I was eternally grateful for.

And also occasionally annoyed by.

Not that I was about to give Shyeel any details, they weren't any of her business. Especially since if I told her anything, those words would be told to that little bitch Trena in about twenty seconds, and then I'd have to kill them both.

"Tell me something that doesn't involve you sounding like that little bitch." I countered, glancing at the small part of my HUD that had begun to flash.

My companion groaned as Cieran, Lawson, EVA, and a couple of Cerberus types got moving once more, the pair of us trailing after the main group, "Do something that you know he enjoys. Stay in for a week and just work on weapons, read those old books that he and Erana can never put down. Something that doesn't involve risking our lives or killing people."

The second would see me either losing my mind or slipping into a coma, so I considered the first instead. Tinkering with gear was something I didn't mind doing from time to time, though not nearly to the extent that Cieran did, and doing for days or weeks on end sounded more than a little droll. But maybe.. we could try inventing something new? That was always far more interesting than just tweaking old designs.

And testing it would give us an excuse to at least go out and blow a few things up, even if we didn't get involved in the kind of battle that really got my heart moving.

I was distracted enough considering the possibilities that I nearly missed the human male in question reaching out to flick my helmet with a finger, making me start a little at the sudden motion. "What?"

When he merely did it again, and Shyeel snickered, I realized I was still on the private line and muted to everyone else. Growling a little, I adjusted my settings and repeated myself, "What?"

"We have our window to get on the ship." He replied dryly, "Unless you and Shyeel want to keep chatting here while the rest of us handle it?"

" _Bosh'tet."_ I batted his hand away and drew a pistol I'd picked up specifically for this mission, glad that my visor hid my embarrassed flush. Here I was, the only one of us who wanted to be along on this little heist, yet I was the one paying the least attention to it. "Let's get this over with."

His head tilted a little to the left in obvious confusion at my brusque tones, but after a moment he rolled a shoulder in a shrug and waved towards the door "We're ready to start if you've got control."

Lawson nodded from where she'd stopped beside a door, "EVA?"

The AI's voice came from the 'soldier' standing on Lawson's left, the mech disguised in standard armor for this particular mission. "The guard rotation will occur in two hundred seconds. I have the appropriate voice filters, security phrases, and idle chatter prepared."

"Good. Security?"

"All security cameras in the relevant areas are under our control. EDI is observing all activity on the station and will alert us should any unexpected assets move in our direction." There was a tiny pause. "She also wishes to indicate mild annoyance that her combat mech is not present for this assignment."

"She is acting as the Commander of a warship." Lawson replied, "She has no room to complain. Heiko, Beatrice, are your speakers set for remote access?"

The two Cerberus agents, resplendent in the armor of Alliance marines, both nodded as the male spoke, "We're set ma'am."

"Good." Lawson's helmet shifted in my direction, "EVA, the standard guards?"

"Departing their assigned quarters now... they are seventeen seconds behind schedule." The AI managed to sound miffed at that, "The remaining guards are still distracted by chaos perpetrated by our agents in the station's main corridor though they are leaving containing the situation to the colonial authorities."

Cieran grunted, "So long as they're busy watching a bunch of drugged up civilians riot and not running this way to kill us, I think we're good."

Riot was probably a bit strong of a word considering that the Cerberus agents had refused to use the hard drugs we'd recommended, but since there was also probably a half-dozen vicious bar brawls going on right now there probably wasn't a better one.

"Agreed." Lawson said, "Miss Kean, Miss T'Voth, if you are ready?"

I made a low noise in my throat and started walking towards the door, Shyeel following behind me. Activating our tactical cloaks, we slipped out of the utility corridor and into an empty hallway. Based on the map updating itself across my visor, we weren't far from the secluded docking collar keeping the _Gallipoli_ attached to the station.

The ship would have been more secure at any number of other docking zones, ones with more traffic and easier access, but evidently the Alliance didn't feel like trusting the colonists with said easy access to their advanced and expensive warship. Which, considering what we knew about the morons who inhabited Horizon, was not a wholly stupid decision... it just wasn't the right one today.

Trusting that Shyeel would be taking her spot near a nearby emergency panel, I sidled into the middle of the hallway and pressed my back against the wall.

Keeping my pistol in my right hand, I checked the silencing equipment added on to the end. It was a light little Salarian weapon, not anything like my or Cieran's usual preferences, but then again I couldn't think of any weapon he'd ever made that was actually intended for stealth. Not entirely trusting it, I brought one of my blades out with my left hand, keeping both weapons ready until the sound of armored footfalls heralded the marines' arrival.

The pair were fully armed and armored, though they had their weapons stowed on their backs and waists rather than in their hands. They were conversing casually, at least until they walked past the panel and Shyeel hit one of the buttons to drop an airtight bulkhead behind them.

I took an easy step forwards as both of them whipped around in shock, the female of the pair going for her weapon. She was closer to me, and so became my target. Some bit of peripheral vision must have alerted her to my movement, the cloaking system not quite perfect, because she started to turn in my direction just as my pistol came up to rest against her throat.

Between the silencer and the weapon being pressed against her under-suit, there wasn't much of a sound beyond a muffled pair of _thumps_ as I put two rounds into her.

The male didn't survive much longer, his rifle dropping to the ground as Shyeel's sword slid neatly into his back and out of his chest. He twitched for a bit longer than his partner as she lowered him to the ground, stopping only when she twisted the blade around a little.

"Clear." I called.

The two Cerberus grunts promptly emerged, looking remarkably like the pair of dead figures on the ground. They quickly set off towards the ship while Cieran, Lawson, and the AI came out more slowly behind them.

"Well, here we go then." Cie remarked as I deactivated my cloaking system, moving to my usual place on his left as the rest of us got moving. "Shepard is going to lose her shit when she finds out."

Lawson didn't sound thrilled, but she tellingly didn't disagree. "Then we had best ensure that she does not realize we were the ones involved."

My lover snorted, "We're going to be her first suspects and you know it."

Our sort-of ally made a displeased sound in her throat but once again didn't offer a counter-point. Instead we simply fell into a passive silence as we slowly walked down the hall, hearing a few muffled scuffling sounds from around the next corner. We all slowed to a stop, only moving once EVA had indicated that the situation at the airlock was resolved.

"Poor bastards." The male Cerberus grunt, Heiko or whatever, offered to the two marines who'd probably died when their supposed friends had gotten close. "Bea, how's the door?"

The female didn't respond verbally, instead making a showy little motion as the airlock to the warship opened.

"EVA," Lawson prompted, "Please secure the inner door."

"Affirmative." The AI replied, stepping past everyone else and into the ship's small entryway. Its omni-tool spun up and linked to the warship's systems, the machine working its way through the security as rapidly as it could.

Cieran shifted closer to me while it worked, my HUD flickering as he created a new line for us. "You all right?"

"I'm fine." I said shortly.

"Mmhmm." He hummed, "I can tell you're fine by the way you're standing there all quiet and irritable instead of impatiently waiting for the door to open so you can fight someone."

My throat vibrated as I growled at him, "I'm fine, just ready to get this over with."

That seemed to startle him slightly, "...really? You seemed excited for this mission."

"I was. I am not anymore."

He seemed to regard me through his helmet, then shook his head, "I'd make a comment about women being confusing but you'd probably stab me."

"You know you effectively just said as much?"

"No," Cieran shook his head once more, "I said I would have said as much, completely different."

I gave him a half-hearted scoff. "That is only amusing when I do it."

"See?" He turned back to the door, started to reach for his hand cannon, stopped himself, and then drew his own silenced pistol. "I know you're in a mood because you never admit to doing that."

"We can talk about it afterwards." I muttered, our conversation having to be put aside as a click across our comms alerted us to the fact that the AI had penetrated the ship's security.

"As expected, there are twelve crew members aboard." It informed us, "Three are currently in the CiC, two are in the mobile war room, three are in engineering, the remaining four are on the crew deck."

"The butcher?" Cieran asked, voice shifting back as he sensibly focused on the mission.

"He is one of the pair in the war room."

"All right." He shifted away from me, fingers curling and then relaxing around his weapon as he readied himself for battle. "Voya and I will go straight for him. Miranda, you and your people can descend and clear out the crew deck. Shyeel?"

"The AI and I get the reactor?" She guessed.

Cie nodded. "Yup, two of you go down to engineering and don't let them sabotage anything. Faster and quieter we get this done, the faster we can sneak our way out of here."

Everyone but myself and the AI nodded or made sounds of agreement while Cieran and I made our way up to the front of the line. While I kept my knife in my off hand, he brought his omni-tool up and prepped a firing pattern of technical mines. As soon as we were both ready, EVA opened the hatch, and the true mission began.

My first impression of the ship was that it was darker and rougher than Lawson's _Normandy._ There was far less lighting, and a great deal of the wall panels were removed to allow easier access to the various systems.

Cieran's longer legs let him get ahead of me as we surged inside, though he slowed to check the cockpit and allowed me to take the lead as I turned down the long walkway heading to the CiC. Just as the machine had said, there were three people present; one sitting on the port side of the walkway at a crew station, another messing with a console at the main holographic display, and the third had her ass sticking out of a wall panel as she worked on something.

I killed the seated man first, the male human probably dying before he even realized that his ship had been boarded. My pistol barked once, taking off the top of his head, and alerting the other two that they had hostiles.

"Pirates!?" Came the scream from the man at the galaxy map, though he seemed as startled and confused as he was alarmed. He started to dive for cover, stopped himself, then seemed to reach for his console as if to hit an alarm.

Those few seconds of hesitation gave me more than enough time to put two rounds into his chest and he toppled backwards with a guttural cry.

That just left the mechanic, who showed a displeasing amount of good sense by yanking herself out of her hatch, spotting us and her dead companions, and immediately spreading her hands apart while going as still as possible.

I started to lift my gun to kill her anyway, then grimaced. "Hostages?"

"Yes." Lawson said at once, "Beatrice, secure her in the airlock then get into the pilot's seat. EVA, I trust that you can multi-task a connection to EDI while you clear engineering?"

"Of course."

The conversation and more detailed orders continued, though I ceased paying attention in favor of following Cieran around the CiC's central area towards a door on our left. It was closed, but a moment's work got it open to reveal a small security station whose equipment was currently in pieces and spread out over a nearby table. Moving past that and into the tiny conference room beyond, we found a man who was probably the ship's executive officer sitting at a table and surrounded by coffee mugs and tablets.

"Surrender." Cieran instructed as we entered, both of our pistols aimed directly at him.

He gaped at us for a second or two, then his fingers flexed as his omni-tool flashed open. We both pulled our triggers before he could start an alarm or scream for help or whatever he was trying to do. The officer jerked as the rounds tore apart most of his chest before slumping over in his chair, blood running down his dark blue uniform.

"Or don't." My lover shook his head once as we turned to the next room, tossing his pistol onto the table so that he could draw his hand cannon.

The 'war room' was as dark as the rest of the ship, save for a holographic display in the center that was illuminating another Alliance officer.

This male was a plain looking little man, with disgustingly short hair that you couldn't even begin to call a mane and absolutely no facial hair. His skin was tanned, his expression murderous as he watched us take up positions at the entryway with our weapons more or less aimed in his direction.

"Kean." The Butcher of Torfan more or less growled the name, a standard Alliance pistol held in his own hands and aimed solidly at my bondmate, though he sensibly restrained himself. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Butcher." Cieran greeted cheerfully, "Isn't it obvious that we're stealing your ship?"

"You're insane." The other man spat, "The Alliance will crush your little corporation for this, and Kaya will have your head on a pike."

"I think your own fate should be more important to you." Cieran noted, "Did you want to-"

The Butcher threw himself to the ground behind the display, firing blindly in our direction as he did.

"I guess he doesn't want to survive this." Cieran shook his head, though I highly doubted we would have actually left the man alive. He was too sincerely an enemy on every level and would assuredly had run off to whine to Shepard about what we'd done to him. The Alliance? Whatever, we could deal with that with denials and our own political allies, but Shepard?

Cieran's casual words aside, dealing with her was a headache that none of us wanted to handle.

We moved without needing to communicate verbally, repeating a simple plan we'd done a thousand times before. He moved forwards slowly, overload mines flickering out in blue flashes to try and stun or flush the target out of cover, while I broke to the right at a faster clip to flank him.

The Butcher may have been armed but he was not armored, not beyond whatever minimal shields he might have added to his official uniform. He didn't sit still and allow himself to be executed, instead breaking for the back of the room with his omni-tool open. I fired at about the same moment as a brilliant flash exploded from his omni-tool, snarling as my visor polarized to protect my eyes.

Which was good, but it still left me blind for a few critical seconds before the helmet's computer adjusted the vision mode to let me see a bleeding man try to throw himself into the next room. He only half-made it before Cieran caught him with a mine, leaving him snarling and twitching as the overload electrocuted him.

Shaking my head a little against the few spots that were still affecting me, I easily completed the circle and planted a boot on his weapon hand before he could recover and try to do much of anything.

His own awareness seemed to return at the pain, his small brown colored eyes moving up to mine. "...you won't get-"

My pistol barked once, cutting off the stupid cliché before he could finish, a mutter of my own coming out. "Disappointing."

"We attacked him in the middle of the local night when he wasn't ready for anything like this." Cieran noted, returning his pistol to his belt as he walked over to join me. "And besides, he was an asshole."

I dropped into a crouch to find his identification tags. Disappointing fight or not, the prestige from the kill would remain. "Step two?"

There was a heavy sigh as he turned away, heading back towards the CiC. "Step two."

* * *

 _ **Alliance Communications Logs; SSV North Cape**_

 _Spectre Shepard: Ash, I need you out in the Traverse, soonest._

 _Spectre Williams: ...uh, I'm kind of in the middle of something skipper._

 _Spectre Shepard: Tell the Admirals it's a Spectre assignment, I need you at Horizon yesterday._

 _Spectre Williams: Horizon? Don't tell me the Geth hit it again, I thought the Corsairs had a garrison fleet there now._

 _Spectre Shepard: They did, someone blew up two destroyers and hit the planetary space station._

 _Spectre Williams: In the name of.. what about the Gallipoli and Commander Anders?_

 _Spectre Shepard: No word on either one of them, and old man Mannfeld is stonewalling me. I've permission from Tevos to investigate on behalf of the Council, don't ask how, and I'm conscripting you as part of the effort._

 _Spectre Williams: I understand, give me an hour to get the crew back aboard and we'll light off._

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes**_

 _ **And nothing bad will ever, ever, ever come out of this chapter. No sir, nothing could ever possibly go wrong with this.**_

 _ **I know things are moving a little fast, even just three chapters in, but that's kind of the point of this particular story; it's primary focus is going to be on Cieran and Voya and how they're handling the upgrade to their relationship, while also keeping everyone informed as the time towards the final explosion draws closer.**_

 _ **On the personal front, I'm doing quite a bit better. I'll be moving into my new home next week, which should improve things even more while also letting me re-establish a proper routine that will see actual writing occurring on something like a regular schedule. I'm tentatively aiming for something like a chapter a week for AR:8 by the end of this month.**_

 ** _Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."_**

 _ **Thanks, Kat**_


	4. Operation: Peacekeeping IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Peacekeeping**

* * *

 _ **The Silver Blade**_

 _Cieran Kean_

* * *

"Heasa ul Feerin," I shook my head in amusement, regarding the increasingly nervous Batarian woman in her dress uniform from my place on the couch in the _Normandy's_ lounge. "Last time I saw you, I was dressing you down for nearly getting your corvette obliterated over Novgorod."

"Yes, honored Reyja'krem." She murmured, her lower eyes entirely averted and her posture completely submissive.

I fought the urge to snort and instead took a few moments to actually look over the former captain of the _Will'o'wisp._ Her uniform's right breast was resplendent with the campaign badges from our fight against Cerberus and then the Collectors, though she'd evidently picked up two new ones that I didn't recognize. She must have been involved in fighting off a few of the pirate groups who'd poked around Novgorod in the wake of our official claim.

She'd also gotten into some kind of an actual fight at some point, or her ship had gotten hit hard enough that she'd gotten wounded because her right ear was badly notched, missing most of its elfin taper. Her tanned skin had a matching scar along her scalp and it looked fairly recent.

"And Joa picked you to captain our new ship?" I asked.

"Yes, honored Reyja'krem." Feerin hesitated, then almost rushed to speak, "My ship was damaged in a pirate raid last month but the Executive Commander told me that I had performed more than admirably. I was given this assignment based on my experience in solo operations in small vessels."

"Hm." I hummed softly, glancing over to where Voya was lounging at the bar and watching with a kind of amused detachment as she carefully removed her helmet and began the process of letting her stiff hair down. "Well, far be it from me to second guess her. Your orders?"

There was the tiniest moment of shifting as she relaxed, "I am to take the _Gallipoli_ on a roundabout route through the Traverse, allowing myself to be spotted at certain locations, before proceeding to our deep space base at Thulodon."

I couldn't help but shake my head at the name. Of all the things to name after Thul, a miserable ice dwarf of a planet at the extreme edges of the Novgorod system wasn't a choice I'd have made. Thul would have probably been a bit flattered and proud that Ayle had done so, though he'd also probably have had a lecture ready for her regarding the nature of the place.

"Good." I said as I pushed past that moment, "Do you have enough mechanics and materials with to repair the battle damage?"

Our departure from Horizon had been far more exciting than our rapid take over of the ship, though my companions and I had next to nothing to do with said escape. That had been entirely in Miranda and the twins' hands after the attempt to bluff our way out of orbit didn't go as well as we'd have liked.

We'd hoped to pretend to be out on an impromptu shakedown run, but evidently we'd missed something on station or in our call since one of the Corsair frigates lurking nearby had abruptly demanded we cease accelerating. When EVA had tried to talk our way out of that, it had opened fire and ruined our ability to go to stealth with a few hits from its laser arrays.

So instead of a nice quiet escape the _Normandy_ had been forced to come in and engage the Corsair ships in system while we frantically prepped for a short FTL hop out system. We'd managed to slip out of the system while the Corsairs had been panicking and trying to work out what was going on, linking up with an SBC cargo ship that had been sent into deep space in advance with mechanics and an actual crew.

The _Normandy_ had caught up a few hours later, then we'd gone through a few more erratic jumps before all three ships had descended on a dead world in a system's whose name consisted of a string of numbers and letters so that charge could be dropped and quick repairs conducted.

And an unexpected new commander could be interviewed.

"I believe so." She answered, "But I would have to speak with the AI that will be accompanying us to be certain of that, honored Reyja'krem. Do you know how long our allies intend to remain here?"

I sighed but knew better than to try and get her to stop calling me the title, there just wasn't enough time in the day. "So far as I know we're going to be lurking here for a day or two while you and EVA patch the ship up and get used to one another. Miranda wants to stick around until she's sure that everything is fine."

The woman gave me a deferential nod, "How should I interact with her sir?"

"So far as the fixing up the ship is concerned," I said, "Consider her a superior officer, but I'd rather you politely deflect if she tries to make any kind of plans regarding the vessel or questions you about the corporation as a whole."

"Understood, honored Reyja'krem."

Sighing again, I shook my head and waved for her to go. "Go ahead and transfer back over and get started, keep me updated on the progress."

Feerin gave me a deep bow with her head craned to the left, then respectfully departed without another word.

Voya shook her head as the door closed behind the other woman, "Joa's best choice for commanding a stealth cruiser worth billions is the most aggressive corvette captain she had."

"To be fair," I shrugged, "We lost a lot of captains fighting Cerberus, and Feerin supposedly learned her lesson after that incident. And it's not like we really know a better candidate who isn't already commanding a heavy cruiser."

"I suppose." My wife sighed as she pushed off from the bar, casually prowling in my direction. "How long do you think until Lawson is done lying to Shepard?"

"Who knows..." I watched with my head tilted as she approached, "Guessing it's time for us to talk while we wait on her?"

Glowing eyes rolled as she planted her knees on other side of my body, settling her not inconsiderable weight into my lap. "Why didn't you just tell me that you didn't want to bother with all of this?"

A heavy breath was my initial response, followed by my hands settling on her armored waist. "Right to the serious stuff?"

"I'd rather avoid you deflecting until Lawson shows up." She countered, reaching up to trace the claw from one of her long fingers along my jaw.

The touch was a combination of a pleasant connection and implicit threat, one that I didn't miss in the slightest. "What do you want me to say Voya? You were already getting bored on Xentha after two weeks of downtime, and this was something that had to be handled quickly anyway."

Her thin black lips twisted as she dug in her claw a little, "Idiot male. That doesn't mean _you_ needed to make yourself unhappy simply because I was a little bored. We could have found something else."

"I wasn't unhappy." I shifted a little, glowering at her hand before jerking as she snapped it around to get a good hold of my hair. "Ow... ugh, fine. I wasn't thrilled to be right back into fighting and risking our lives, but I wasn't anything more than a little annoyed, and I _was_ going to try and keep you on Novgorod with me once we got there."

From the tone of her hum she didn't quite believe me, but she did ease up the pressure a little. "That is acceptable, I have a few ideas of things we can do, but I'm still annoyed with you for _constantly_ thinking that you're the one who owes me instead of the other way around."

"I don't like you feeling like you owe me." I countered.

"That doesn't change the fact that I do." She hissed, leaning in closer and giving me a severe glower. "If you keep trying to brush that aside I'm going to be increasingly irritated with you."

I tried to return her severe glare but couldn't quite manage it. Instead I closed my eyes and leaned forwards, feeling her shift back so that my forehead came to rest against the armor on her neck. "I don't mean to make light of that, or insult you by brushing everything aside. I just... don't like the implications."

There was a heavy exhalation along my scalp as she sighed, then I felt her almost tiredly nuzzle my hair. "Idiot male. Always so worried about stupid things. You know I'd never think you're taking advantage of me, and even if I did I'd beat you back into your senses within five minutes."

A huff of breath came out at that. "What did I do to find someone so loving and gentle?"

"Do you want me to start chronologically, or alphabetically?"

"Alphabetically, in Thessian." Her low growl was the only warning before her tiny claws scratched along my neck, "...did you sharpen those? Feels like you sharpened them."

"Sarcastic _keshin_." She countered, awkwardly shifting back and wiggling to get off of my lap. I let her go, and she wasted little time in putting her hands on her waist as she looked down at me. "You're not going to do something like this again, understand?"

"Yes ma'am." I replied dutifully, shaking me head when she tilted her pert little nose up at me. "...you're not going to let this go for a while, are you?"

In response she simply made a low sound of agreement and turned towards the bar. "Drink?"

"Why not?" While she wandered back to the bar to start mixing, I ruffled through my armor's pouches until I had my pipe and my bag of _chehala_ leaves. "So, did you have anything in mind once we get back?"

"Weapons work." Voya replied as she worked, "Something that will keep us occupied for a while."

I could guess where that was going. "You want me to finally make something rapid fire then."

"That," She agreed, "And maybe we could work on your old armor again. It's been a while since we so much as touched it."

"And you like working on guns and heavy machinery more than armor?"

"And that."

Snorting, I got to work preparing my pipe. By the time I had it filled and lit, Voya had brought me a drink and settled down on the couch beside me. Unfortunately we didn't really get time to talk further, since Miranda came stomping in about fifteen seconds later. Her furious expression was mildly amusing, though the fact that she made a beeline for my glass of rum and threw it down before I could do more than protest was less so.

"That bad?" I groused

"Worse." Miranda replied, taking my glass over to the bar and selecting a bottle of wine for herself. "Shepard made it clear that I am her primary suspect in the matter given the nature of the attack on the Corsair patrol ships. I deflected as best I could but you know how she is."

"Overbearingly determined?"

"Essentially." She said as she poured herself a drink, then after a glance back at me, started working on replacing mine as well. "It does not help that the Butcher was one of her close friends, this is not a matter she will simply drop."

Voya tapped a finger against her own glass, "Did she mention us?"

Miranda shook her head, "No, but I don't doubt she'll be reaching out to you sooner rather than later. She'll want to question you about any contact you've had with me at a bare minimum."

"Probably." I agreed, "We'll probably join you on the suspects list once she gets a hold of the AIS records about the undercover operation we raided. We did in that in our style more than yours."

"Yes, and she's also brought in Miss Williams to assist her in investigating what happened. That likely means that at least one councilor has given her official permission to spend time on the matter."

"Great." I sighed as I let my head fall backwards. To be entirely honest I'd thought we'd have at least a few days before Shep was on our tails. "She must not have been on an assignment."

"Evidently not." Miranda said before falling silent.

A few minutes later she was seated on a nearby chair with her glass of wine, and I'd enjoyed a few sips from my new glass of rum before focusing on my pipe. For her part, Voya had finished off her own glass, removed her coat, and then arranged it in my lap as a pillow before stretching out along the couch.

Considering that the coat was armored I didn't think it worked all that well, but it was probably still better than my actual armor.

"So." I said, once Miranda had relaxed slightly. "Do we stick with the plan?"

"We have little choice." She replied, "If we can make it seem as though the _Gallipoli_ is moving towards the rim and Hegemony it will at least induce some level of doubt. Further, the theft of their newest cruiser from an independent colony isn't something that the AIS can hide. The media and parliament will be all over the crisis."

I made a sound of agreement, "You think if we can even implicate the Hegemony, the racism will do the rest?"

She shrugged, "I think it is worth the attempt. Hegemon Balak will of course scream his innocence and point fingers elsewhere, and that may further muddy the waters. So long as no one has absolute proof we can drag out and delay the matter for a few months. You are certain that your naval base is unknown to the Council?"

"I'd think that they'd have yelled at us for it by now." I pointed out. "But then again they might just be sitting on it to hit us later. Not like we have a better place since the AIS found your outpost."

"True." Miranda said, pausing to take a sip of wine before resuming, "But neither of us can afford to simply assume that state of affairs will continue. Shepard will certainly reach out to Aethyta, and the Broker will almost certainly know of the facility."

Voya huffed, "The Nightblades are supposed to be handling that kind of infiltration."

"Yeah, but they're still pretty new." I shook my head and extinguished my pipe after one last puff, "And we don't have all that many of them. She's right, the old fish will find it sooner rather than later, especially with her daughter in law pushing for information. After that things are going to get complicated."

There was a distinctive grumble from my wife at the last word, "Of course it will be... how do we keep her off us," her lips twisted, " _peacefully_?"

I had no idea, and so glanced to Miranda who shrugged tiredly. "You're a legal corporation registered with the Council, with sovereign authority over your system. By such legalities you're entitled to in depth investigations and protections. Theoretically speaking, with Sparatus backing you, you could drag out any such effort for months or even years."

I set my pipe aside, freeing up a hand to start idly messing with Voya's stiff strands of hair. "Maybe, but Shepard can get around that with her Spectre status. If we're beholden to the Council then she could just show up and demand we turn the ship back to the Alliance if we pretend we grabbed it from pirates."

"Possible." Miranda sighed, "I think it would be best to leave it at your facility long enough to install EVA's core and then relocate to a more isolated position, or perhaps simply keep it moving."

I frowned, "You want us to install EVA? That mean you're officially joining?"

"Considering that I will certainly be associated with you regardless after this operation, I feel as if I have little choice." She finished off her wine and then set her glass aside, "At a bare minimum we are co-conspirators on a level we were not before, and certain pooling of assets will be required. I will speak with ul Massa regarding anything further."

"Works for me." I replied. That level of negotiation was something I wanted no part of, as pleasant as it would be to have Miranda around as a long-term ally. For one it would be an awful lot of work, and probably contentious, political work at that. For another my ambivalence would definitely wreck any attempt to merge Cerberus into the SBC as an intelligence arm.

I would be just fine with being allies, or even just 'co-conspirators'.

Ayle, being Ayle, obviously wanted something more concrete. Which, to be fair, was probably the smart option thinking long-term. If the Silver Blades made it out of the war with the Reapers intact having someone as skilled and intelligent as Miranda in our ranks could only be a good thing.

I... didn't particularly want to spend time thinking long term. Not until we got past everything.

We exchanged a little more small talk, mostly consisting of Miranda telling us she'd be spending most of the next two days on the _Gallipoli_ inspecting it and assisting in repairs as best she could. And that she expected the two of us to do the same.

Voya said we'd think about it, earning a rather annoyed sigh from our ally before she'd departed for her loft of a cabin.

"Bed?" I asked once she'd gone.

"Bed." Voya agreed, heaving herself up with a quiet little groan. "Then we can go home, and see if the big idiot is awake."

I lifted an eyebrow as I got up as well, "Don't tell me you miss her."

There was a tiny snort as we got moving, "Fuck no, I just don't want the bitch to avoid suffering through the aftermath along with us."

"Ah."

* * *

 _ **Silver Blade Communication Logs**_

 _Director ul Massa: This was not the quiet theft that I was promised Cie._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: Athame's ass, you know that shit happens. Shepard already harassing you?_

 _Director ul Massa: She attempted to, one of my staff handled it. She was asking over your whereabouts and I informed her that you were still on your vacation so far as I knew._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: She ask about Cerberus as well?_

 _Director ul Massa: Extensively. I won't be able to delay responding forever, the sooner yourself and Lawson can return to Novgorod so that we can coordinate our answers the better._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: Agreed. We're going to be here for another day, just long enough to make sure the crew and EVA are in sync enough to get the asset moving, then we'll ride home at top speed._

 _Director ul Massa: Good._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: How is everything else?_

 _Director ul Massa: Stable, and yes, that includes Illyan._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: Feerin mentioned pirate raids, who the fuck is stupid enough to come after us?_

 _Director ul Massa: Small timers from what we know, but I haven't ruled out someone pushing them. That's partly why I would very much like to have Lawson's organization as an asset right now. I don't trust anything from the Broker, and T'Ravt and Aria are entirely occupied with events in the Republics._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: I'm not even going to ask about the last, but I did speak to Miranda slightly on the subject. At a minimum I think she's open to a tight alliance. If you play your cards right she might be amiable to something more._

 _Director ul Massa: Excellent. I'll make preparations for your arrival and alert T'Laria that you will resuming your position sooner rather than later._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: I still plan on taking the full six months of my vacation you know._

 _Direcotr ul Massa: In which case you can destroy her dreams by delegating all of your work to her, though I would ask that you record her reaction. It will likely be amusing._

 _Exec. Cmdr. Kean: Heh, good point. See you soon Ayle._

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

 _ **Le gasp! Two chapters inside of a week? What is this, 2016!? Joking aside, we'll obviously be doing a last bit of aftermath in the next chapter as well as their arriving on Novgorod. Then we'll be moving into the next operation which may see the other two core members of the four-person band return as point of view characters, though I'm not going to guarantee that yet.**_

 ** _ **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**_**

 _ _ **Thanks, Kat**__


	5. Operation: Return I

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Return**

* * *

 _ **Silent Witness**_

 _Voya'kean vas Xentha_

* * *

I stared out from the window of our new top floor penthouse, looking over Novgorod and comparing to how it had been when we'd left. Most of the ships that had been being used as temporary shelters or workshops were long gone, returned to space, and now squat buildings and small towers stretched far out into the distance. Just off to the north from our place in the 'headquarters zone' was the 'entertainment zone', with the more elegant towers of casino-brothels and a pair of clawball stadiums predominating.

And despite the fact that it was a local winter, the city remained extremely colorful thanks to the extreme levels of cloth awnings, banners, and coverings.

"It's so patchwork, mismatched." I muttered, "You'd think there'd at least be some kind of pattern. It's giving me a headache just looking at it."

Cieran hummed from where he was poking around the home, "I kind of like it actually, it's a nice contrast to Omega."

" _Anything_ is a nice contrast to Omega." I countered, turning away from the view to see our living room. It was more or less a faithful recreation of our old place on Aria's station; hardwood floors, old but comfortable Asari furniture, and a complete lack of any real decoration. "We need weapons racks out here."

"They're setup in the third bedroom right now, not the best place for them." He reported, waving a hand towards the hallway leading to them. "Move one right next to the couch, put another over there by the hallway?"

"Hmm..." I hummed. "Yes. And one in the kitchen, by the drink rack. Where is our workshop going to be? You said there's three bedrooms?"

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that Erana and Jacqueline have claimed the second one from what's in there. Third bedroom has the weapons racks and a pair of workbenches, but it's all basic equipment."

I made an understanding sound, "Well, I know what we're doing tomorrow then. Where is your daughter anyway?"

"Probably working." He replied, for once not bitching about me referring to Erana as his daughter. He'd probably just resigned himself to accepting it. "We've got about two hours until Ayle comes by. You want to go out or just have dinner?"

"Food." I waved a permissive hand in his direction. "Steaks and breads. Get to it."

Cieran gave me an unimpressed look, but when I simply crossed my arms below my breasts and stared back at him he submitted and trekked off to the kitchen to get started. While he rummaged around to find the appropriate cookware and got the food out of the refrigerator, I settled down on the couch and started inspecting the flat-screen and its options.

To my vague surprise someone had actually thought ahead and linked our home network to the main command center, giving us ready access to most of the corporation's data. In addition to the direct cable connection to headquarters, there was also two local news agencies, which surprised me to a greater degree, and at least seven channels dedicated to card tournaments, sporting events, and a live show from one of the premier brothels.

Rolling my eyes at the last, I quickly returned to the corporate network, entered my credentials when prompted, and began to poke around. Cieran noticed what I was doing a few minutes in, and asked me to relay what I found.

"The local garrison is twenty regiments, with another dozen training regiments still on planet." I reported as I read through the ground forces register, "Looks like Nagato and New Canton each have a full brigade fulfilling the old contracts and maintaining the outposts. Xentha's down to just the training regiments at our old facility."

"What about the Old District?" He called over the sound of steaks beginning to sizzle on the oven.

I flicked through before shaking my head, "No direct troops have gone in since we left, but there's a giant file on the economic investments we have there. Not touching that."

"Good plan." Cieran agreed, "Where's the other half of the army?"

"Scattered across the Traverse for the most part, two regiments each for about seven colonies that disbanded their militia or got rid of small-timers in favor of hiring us." My eyes slid over contract notes and colony names. "A lot over by the Rim... huh. Since when do we do business with Cessa?"

"Cessa?"

I shrugged, "Three full brigades and a note saying there's an option to send two more in her direction... ah, she's fighting some Batarian out there. Some ass of a highborn is trying to carve out his own little empire out of the Hegemony's old Rim colonies."

The most reclusive of the Greater Warlords was also currently paying for nearly half of our fleet, four of our heavy cruiser-light cruiser pairs plus their escorts all working with her own forces to track down and take out former the former Hegemony ships following the wannabe _Ha'diq._ Most of the rest of our ships were on a kind of rotating patrol between here and New Canton, stopping off at Nagato and the various other colonies we were protecting in irregular patterns.

The exception to that was the _Reliant_ / _Shokari_ battlegroup which was staying local to protect our new planet.

By the time I got to the section that interested us the most, the status of the Lancer and Nightblade teams, the food was nearly done... and Erana and her girlfriend were returning home.

"Holy shit!" Jacqueline swore as she step inside and saw me lounging on the couch. Both she and Erana were wearing standard uniforms, though the Human of the pair naturally had her Lancer coat on top. "Voya!?"

"Voya!?" Erana demanded, the gangly maiden promptly pushing the smaller human woman inside to let her in as well. She likewise gaped at me for a moment, then snapped her head around to the kitchen, saw Cieran moving around, and let out a happy little cry before rushing forwards.

I rolled my eyes when Cieran let out a startled oath as he was nearly tackled by his ecstatic daughter, "Goddess father! Why didn't you tell us you were coming home!?"

"Complicated." He replied, awkwardly returning her hug with one arm while also trying to stop the steak from burning with his other hand. "Erana?"

The maiden reluctantly let go, seemed to notice that he was cooking, and promptly attempted to grab the pan from him so that she could do it. A good natured argument began almost at once as the pair engaged in something like combative cooking, leaving Jacqueline to kick the door shut and wander over to the living room.

"So..." She offered as she dropped into an armchair, "How was vacation?"

"Eventful." I said, "Cieran and I bonded, killed my aunt, then were lazy for a few weeks before Lawson roped us into stopping a Corsair plot to turn the Traverse into chaos by killing the Butcher and stealing his ship."

Jack opened her mouth, closed it, then managed to get out. "...what the fuck?"

I stared flatly back at her. "What?"

"All of that!" She countered, "Seriously, what the fuck!? You're saying you got married, killed your fucking aunt, killed the goddamned _Butcher of Torfan_ , and then stole his ship?"

I pursed my lips as I thought about it, "We also killed three of my cousins and my old Promised along with my aunt. Stupid idiots had some kind of scheme to replace the High Elder and weren't smart enough to execute it properly."

"Fucking Christ..." Jacqueline groaned before turning around and raising her voice. "Erana? I need a drink. Don't care what just it make it strong as hell."

"I will, and don't start bothering her for stories!" Erana shouted back, "I want to hear them and they'll be annoyed if they have to repeat it all!"

The biotic rolled her eyes but rather than ask for details, instead asked after someone else, "Where's Shy? Please don't tell me she got herself killed."

"No," I snorted, "She's supposed to be tracking down the little bitch and Ghai."

"Uh-huh, so she's off doing her own crap and you don't expect to see her for a few days?"

That was exactly what we expected, so I simply shrugged and leaned back in the couch to enjoy the comfort for as long as I could. That turned out to be about three minutes before Cieran and Erana were bringing food and drinks out to the dining table. We migrated over to join them, settling down and piling food onto our plates.

Erana waited with visible impatience until Cieran had selected his steak and began cutting before blurting out, "You two actually bonded? Officially, with paperwork and tokens and everything?"

In response Cieran brought up his left hand, rummaged around under his shirt for a moment, then extracted the necklace with a worn old Turian claw on it. "Yup"

His daughter blinked, then glanced at me in time to see me doing the same thing, though mine had a blackened shard from a Krogan crest. "His most impressive kill."

"Ganar Yulaz?" Jack asked.

"No, his son." I corrected, then frowned and corrected myself, "Cieran's most impressive _solo_ kill."

"Ah." Jacqueline said, "Who's on his?"

"The Turian who attempted to..." Old anger stirred, calming only when I glanced at the mortal remains born on my lover's neck. " _Tame_ me."

The human female winced, and Erana quickly moved to push past the awkward moment. "Was there a ceremony? Why didn't you tell me! I'd have gone!"

Cieran sighed as he set his knife aside, "You and Trena both. We signed a piece of paperwork, it was part of the High Elder's scheme to see if her aunt and her old boyfriend were the ones trying to mess with some of his policies. He thought it might enrage them enough to flip out openly and screw up."

"Which it did." Using a claw, I picked out a piece of steak and tossed it into my mouth. "...idiots tried to assassinate him at lunch the next day."

Erana groaned, "Father, only you could get roped into something that complicated on your vacation."

"I think there's a few other people as cursed by the goddess as I am." Cieran replied dryly, "But yes, it was an interesting few days there."

The pair promptly pushed us for the details, and we slowly gave them as we ate. How my Aunt had been so easily duped into thinking I gave a shit about the _Vhaka_ and the clan, and that I intended to take her place on the Elder's Assembly. My bonding to Cieran had been the final move to set her off as it obliterated the potential link between our clan and the wealthy Barus family.

My old Promised, Leski'Barus, had evidently been enraged that I'd forgotten him in favor of a mere Human. Which I thought was hypocrisy and idiocy on a ridiculous scale since the fucking _keshin_ hadn't so much as tried to go after me when I'd been enslaved, or tried to contact me during the war. His already shitty attitude had not been improved by said Human's corporation taking away a good deal of the Barus family's wealth, putting familial pressure on him to do something about the 'insult'.

"So he and your aunt tried to kill Cieran?" Erana asked.

"More or less." I shrugged, "They hired a few failed Takers, pretty much the usual muscle for hire in the District, and sent them after him. We killed them in a restaurant and spent a few days running around digging up evidence that they were breaking a few trade contracts the Elders had signed with both Ayle and T'Ravt."

"And," Cieran sighed, "Dodging and killing more assassins and security guards the entire way. Fun times."

I rolled my eyes at the sarcasm, "Once all of that was done with, we lazed around the High Elder's mansion and the Lady's palace for two weeks until Lawson tracked us down."

Jacqueline took a heavy pull from her drink, gasping a little as she spoke, "And... she got you to run off and kill the Butcher?"

"Not at first." Cieran said before launching into the full explanation of what had happened. The recap took far longer than our first as Jacqueline continued to interrupt, pushing for details, and we'd finished eating by the time we reached the part where I had executed the asshole.

She rested her head on one hand and groaned as I finished. "You really killed the Butcher?"

Reaching up and pulling my necklace off, I tossed it to her without a word. Her strange little fingers rotated it quickly around until she found the various tags I'd taken from both Corsairs and old Cerberus agents. "...fuck, you did. Shepard is going to lose her goddamned mind."

"Already is." I told her, catching the trophies when she tossed them back to me. "We had to shoot our way out, that implicated Lawson and her stealth ship. From what we know she grabbed Williams and charged off to Horizon to investigate just after we go out."

"Ah." The other woman grimaced, "Shit, that's why you're back. Trying to look innocent?"

Cieran shrugged, "Something like that."

When she simply shook her head, I frowned at her. "What? I thought you'd be happy that hypocritical asshole was killed."

"I don't give a fuck about him, son of a bitch didn't even let me try to defend myself before he threw me into a freezer." Jack shook her head, "But Shepard is... she loved that guy once. She's gonna hunt Lawson until she's arrested or dead. If she even thinks you guys were involved it ain't gonna end well."

Cieran rolled a hand as he stood up, Erana silently joining him in grabbing empty plates and utensils, "Things wouldn't have gone well if that idiot had kick-started a war in the Traverse either."

"Probably not." She said with a tired groan. "Fuck I can't even imagine how much of a mess that would have been with all of those ex-Hegemony assholes running around, plus those two Warlord pricks, then us, then the Alliance, then the big titted humanity cheerleader, then... fuck. Just when I thought shit was calming down too."

"All things considered," Cieran offered as he headed back to the kitchen, "I'm pretty sure this _does_ count as things calming down."

It took me about three seconds to get depressed over that, and to get further depressed when I realized that I probably owed the male for both cooking and cleaning for me. Dammit... he was lucky I was so kind.

By the time he and his daughter were done cleaning up the debris from their cooking efforts I had made us both drinks and was waiting on the couch. The asshole regarded me with a fondly amused look before settling down beside me, and after an annoyed rap on his head, swung himself around so that his back was to my angled chest. That gave me access to his mane, and I wasted little time in undoing the lazy tail it had been tied up in.

"What the fuck is it with alien women and your freaking hair?" Jacqueline demanded as she dropped back onto the armchair. "Ayle was all over that back in the day too."

I glowered at her as I started tugging the thin strands into a new pattern, "You're the only other species that even _has_ hair. And it's only acceptable when it's black like this, otherwise it just looks like it's dirty all of the time."

The other Human glowered at the clear reference to her own coloration, though Erana dropping into her lap stopped her from replying. Well, considering that Erana was hardly a lightweight and nearly a foot taller than her partner, it stopped her from doing much of anything beside gasping for air and groaning while the maiden spoke.

"You are going to stay now, aren't you?" She asked, easily fending off frantic efforts to move her.

"We are." Cie replied lazily. "I'll be taking my post back but delegating everything to Trena, we'll be working on projects here until vacation gets boring."

Erana almost giggled, "I don't think Miss Trena will forgive you for that. She's been looking forwards to you coming back so that _she_ could have a vacation."

"Trena," he countered, "Is a lazy bitch who's probably doing as little as she thinks she can get away with as it is. Ghai will probably kiss me for making her do actual work."

Anything Erana was going to say in return was cut off by a flash of biotic light and a yelp as she was abruptly pitched off of Jacqueline and onto the floor. To my disappointment that did not start a brawl that Cieran and I could both bet on and be entertained by, and after a muttered conversation the two simply swapped places; the taller Erana sitting and then pulling Jacqueline into her lap.

Of course, seeing the cocky bitch sitting in her girlfriend's lap like while Erana smirked was amusing on its own.

"Shut up." Jacqueline muttered, her pale skin a bit red. "She's too fucking tall! It just doesn't work the other way."

"I said nothing." I said, "Neither did Cieran."

"She's telling the truth... for once." He noted.

Hissing softly, I jerked hard enough on his hair to make him flinch. "And what the fuck is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." He replied quickly, grimacing even more when I pulled his head back even more, making his entire body arch until I could glower right into his tiny green eyes. "What?"

I narrowed my own to slits. "Asshole."

The _bosh'tet_ had the nerve to smirk, "You love me."

"Don't remind me." The words came out on reflex, but I let him get comfortable once again either way. He'd pay for the comment later, we both knew that, but have a vicious sparring match right before Ayle was supposed to show up probably wouldn't end well.

There just wouldn't be enough time to properly injure him before someone dragged us apart.

That turned out to be a sadly prudent decision as our, in Shyeel's words 'sort-of boss' arrived perhaps ten minutes later. She hadn't changed at all in the last few months, which was probably good. I'd been half worried she'd start acting like that stuck-up Shaaryak bitch now that she seriously running things without Cieran around, but she still wore a soldier's uniform with a Lancer coat and nodded her head to us at an angle reserved for equals.

Of course, I could have done without the fact that she wasted no time in yelling at us.

"You two," Her normally gravelly voice was even lower than usual. "Were supposed to alert me when you arrived."

Cieran had managed to work his head into my lap while I re-did the braids on either side of his mouth, and he cracked an eye open to regard Ayle on hearing her voice. "Did you honestly expect us to?"

"No." She stated. "What I do want to know is how you evaded the soldiers I specifically had looking for you."

I rolled my eyes, "The ones on duty were lowborn females. He signed his name on their armor."

Ayle's four eyes blinked in slow sequence before she let out an exhausted sounding groan, "Paragons of the Pillars... _now_ you finally start exploiting your fame? Over a petty desire to avoid responsibility for a few hours?"

"Again, are you honestly surprised?" He asked.

"No." The woman sighed heavily, "As much as I wish that I was, no. I presume you already told these two about the shitstorm you and Lawson managed to kick up?"

"Better what we did than the hurricane that would have come down if we hadn't." Cieran replied. He sat up as he spoke, making me glower a little at the loss of warmth, and began stretching as he continued, "Besides, Miranda told me she was going right to your office and I figured you two would work out some kind of plan without needing much input from me."

"Yes, but I could have avoided needing to have _this_ meeting in addition to that one." She retaliated. "Did you at least have the courtesy to prepare food for me as well? I can smell the spices you always use."

A pale arm waved, "It's in the fridge."

Ayle's bitching toned down a little once she'd gotten some food in her, and once both she and Cieran had pipes lit and _chehala_ smoke began filling the air. Erana and Jacqueline vanished into their bedroom to give us the illusion that this was a serious and private meeting.

For my part I sipped from a new brandy, pacing myself as I leaned into Cieran's side. "So, what did you and the former terrorist decide?"

"That she and I have several weeks of negotiation to go through regarding folding her organization into our own." She replied, flicking her upper eyes to Cieran. "My first thought was that we could simply merge your special forces programs with her assets and have her as your subordinate, but she is pushing for an independent intelligence branch."

Cieran shrugged, "I can see that, but I don't think we would want to split up the Lancers and Nightblades."

"No, we wouldn't." Ayle agreed, "I proposed a counter-offer, her combat assets would be given to you but the theoretical intelligence agency would be given a rotating pool of Nightblade teams and perhaps one Lancer team for muscle. Obviously with the potential for more depending on how our expansion programs go."

He grunted around his pipe, "She stall?"

"Yes, but I believe she is interested." She rolled a wrist in an Asari gesture of patience, "I don't intend to push."

I shook my head, making my stiff hair rustle softly. "You two can debate all of that later. What are we doing about Shepard and our new ship?"

Ayle rolled her upper eyes and exhaled a plume of white smoke, "The short version? We're going to pin the blame on the SIU and the Hegemony. They already knew of the mission based on evidence that Lawson has, and her AI are already expanding that to imply they made a move for the ship."

I pursed my lips, "That won't cover up the fact that a stealth ship damaged or destroyed a bunch of Corsair ships at Horizon."

"The SIU heist occurred at the same time as Lawson's attempt to cripple the _Gallipoli_ and stop the operation." Ayle supplied smoothly. "She even pursued the other cruiser to the edge of Hegemony space and took battle damage when it ambushed her vessel."

"Ah." Cieran nodded, "I'm guessing she already ran off to set up that bit of sophistry?"

"Yes."

Tapping a finger on my thigh, I shook my head after a few moments, "Shepard won't buy it."

Ayle flicked a hand, "Whether or not she buys it matters less than the fact that she won't be able to prove anything, and we'll have at least some degree of hard evidence to back-up our claims. Few would expect us to go so far as to damage our own priceless stealth cruiser after all."

"It's a fair point." Cieran's mouth worked as he took a few slow drags before shaking his head, "We're going to have to be careful, this could be a riptide all the same. Shepard doesn't like to abuse her Spectre status but if she's convinced that we killed her old lover than she's going to go all out trying to catch us."

"Agreed." Ayle said, "For now, all work on both ships will be done by mechs and Lawson's Cerberus assets at deep space locations. Neither is to approach Novgorod at all, and our future meetings with Lawson will be done entirely by QEC or aboard one of our warships."

Cieran nodded once more, "Sensible precautions. I don't suppose Shepard gave you any idea as to when she's going to come sniffing around?"

"Of course not." She let out a seething, whistling sigh between her teeth. "Which is going to be another problem. You're a terrible liar and a worse actor Cie, she'll see through you instantly."

My bondmate gave her a lazy smile, "Don't worry. I think we've got a plan for that."

Ayle stared at him... then sighed again. "Sacred Pillars, I'm almost afraid to ask. Voya, how many drinks will I need to pretend I didn't hear it?"

"At least two." I told her seriously.

Cieran did his best to look aggrieved... and failed miserably.

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

 ** _And yet another chapter, and one that at least gets somewhere closer to my old standard in terms of chapter length. This one is again a bit of an info-dump but I tried to present it at least in an interesting fashion. Next chapter will either see the return of Trena and maybe a Spectre, or will be waking up an old friend... not sure on the exact order yet._**

 ** _Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."_**

 _ _ **Thanks, Kat**__


	6. Operation: Return II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Return**

* * *

 **The Silver Blade**

 _Cieran Kean_

* * *

It took Shepard most of a week to head in our direction, and when she finally came to the system it was with all of the pomp and ludicrous self-importance of an official Council Spectre. Which in a perverse way was actually good news, since it meant she was just here to talk and question. If she'd already been convinced of our guilt and wanted to fight she'd have stealthed her way on planet. Further, if she seriously suspected us, she'd have shown up suddenly to try and see if we revealed anything in a panic.

Ayle and I had a quick conversation as Shepard made her way to the planet's surface, and agreed that it was most likely that this was going to be entirely about Miranda with a minor side of investigating our involvement.

" _More or less expected."_ The image of the woman in question shook her head, making her already frazzled hair get a bit more so. " _My feelers in the AIS are already indicating that the masquerade is at least partially working. Most of the traditional intelligence and military types are proving to be exceedingly eager to blame the Hegemony."_

I made a quiet sound around my pipe before pulling it free so I could speak clearly, "Looking to drown them while they're weak I'm guessing. Shepard not buying it?"

" _Not in the slightest."_ Miranda confirmed, " _And she managed to dig up an STG investigative team from somewhere to assist her as well. I trust your usual paranoia is still effect?"_

Ayle gave her a perfunctory nod, "Only non-critical information is broadcast, all other data is kept to cabled networks or physical hard drives. Her ship will be quarantined and observed from the moment it lands to ensure no team attempts anything."

The human woman seemed to relax slightly, " _Good. It is probable you'll have to deal with some rather intrusive investigations all the same but I'm sure you're prepared to stall. What is your plan to avoid Kean revealing anything?"_

"Avoidance." I supplied with a shrug, "I'm on vacation and can't be bothered to deal with this crap. If she does track me down, I'm going to be myself as much as possible."

" _Blunt, rude, and relishing the fact that her close friend was murdered?"_

"He was an asshole." I pointed out reasonably, "And that's _me_ saying that he was an asshole so you know the bastard was way the fuck out there. You're really sure that she slept with him?"

Miranda elected to ignore the question, as I could have guessed, " _I suppose that is likely your best option short of fleeing to Omega and looking guilty via flight."_

"In either case," Ayle said, "I don't intend to volunteer the fact that he is on planet, and we're short on time until she arrives."

" _I highly doubt that will work."_ Miranda said, " _Even if you control the official media the fact that he has returned will already have spread across your entire city. Korolev and Goto at the very least will have little difficulty in ferreting out such information."_

"Yeah." I agreed, "But we're operating on the hope that Shepard won't be able to stick around long enough for that kind of thing."

Miranda nodded, then frowned. " _Of course, that also assumes that the Shadow Broker does not have agents already reporting your presence. What is your status on removing them?"_

"Cieran and T'Laria's Nightblades have vetted everyone at the rank of Senior Captain and above, I had to execute one of my Xenthan regimental commanders and one of the Asari from Illium." Ayle's posture shifted to show her annoyance at their betrayal, "We did so publicly and released a notice that such actions would not be tolerated, but that we would forgive any such Broker agent of a lower rank who turned themselves in immediately."

I pursed my lips, this was the first I'd heard of such a thing. "Anyone take you up on it?"

"Nine civilians and fifteen officers, all but one of which was either a HSL or an SL." Ayle replied with a tiny shrug, "Our best estimate is that there are at least that many potential agents remaining, though they are likely not active ones. I believe one of Nightblade squad leaders wants to start up a financial investigation branch to look for illicit payments, to make their job easier if nothing else, but such a thing will have to wait until our negotiations are done."

Miranda crossed her arms, saying nothing but inclining her head in agreement.

"In either case, we're off topic." Ayle continued, "What is the status of the ships?"

 _"The Normandy has minor damage which we showed off to several civilian ships while dropping charge near Chengdu, we're en route to our new staging location. The Gallipoli is already there and is undergoing repairs."_ Miranda paused to glance at something off screen, " _News of our sighting has just hit the extranet, so that is at least working as planned."_

I nodded, "If nothing else it'll make sure Shepard knows you're not on planet, it might inspire her to get this done quickly so she can run off to question those civilians."

"We can only hope." Ayle agreed, "In either case we are out of time. Lawson? I will contact you to resume our negotiations once Shepard has departed."

Miranda tilted her head politely in return and then cut the connection, leaving Ayle and I alone in her office. I was opening my mouth to say something when there was a quiet chime from her desk, and her Asari secretary's voice carried from hidden speakers, " _Director, Spectre Shepard's vessel has landed and she is on her way to your office."_

"Thank you Kune." Ayle replied, "Ensure the guards are ready to receive her with the appropriate ceremony. If she has any guests or guards please request that they remain outside of my office, but do not push the issue if she refuses."

" _Yes ma'am."_

As the line cut, Ayle and I exchanged a glance and then a mutual nod. While she began tugging at her uniform and coat to ensure it was perfect, I slipped around her and out the back door to enter her quarters.

Ayle, like most Batarians of any means, seemed to adore ostentatious wealth for its own sake... but she remained enough of a soldier to combine the extravagant furniture and art with obvious hiding locations for weapons. Resisting the urge to poke around a little I made for the emergency stairwell hidden behind a rather impressive painting of an artist creating a sand sculpture. From there it was an annoying trip down six flights of stairs, down two utility corridors, and then I was once more enjoying the crisp winter air.

That pleasant state lasted for about five seconds before my wife ghosted out of an alcove and fell in beside me. She was in full armor, much as I was, though she was wearing her helmet for obvious reasons. "So?"

"Shepard's landed." I replied, "Is on her way to speak with Ayle. Miranda's part of the plan seems to be working as far as distracting the AIS, but Shep's not buying it."

She made a mewling noise that was her version of a verbal shrug. "Which we expected."

"Which we expected." I agreed, "In either case we get to pretend like she's not here and do our best to blow her off if she tracks us down anyway."

Glowing eyes rolled behind her visor, "Where she'll try and kill us on suspicion."

"I give us fifty-fifty odds." I shrugged as we left the narrow space between the tower and it's neighbor, entering the quiet street that would take us to the one that held our penthouse. In a few months the streets would probably be packed, but since most of our membership remained Asari, Turian, and Batarian, and since all three species had little love for nearly freezing temperatures, the city was fairly quiet.

Or at least this area was. I didn't doubt that the 'entertainment' district was as packed as usual regardless of the temperature outside.

"So," I asked as we walked, "What's the plan for the rest of the day? Relaxing and tinkering?"

There was a low growling sound in her throat, "If you can get rid of the little bitch and the rest of the squad leaders, yes."

I blinked, then groaned. "Athame's ass, don't tell me that Trena brought them all with her?"

Voya rolled a shoulder, "Aya, Deshi, Mirala, and a bunch of the new ones who didn't introduce themselves."

"You mean you didn't listen when they did."

Her helmet shifted as she turned her nose up, "No, they didn't introduce themselves, and if you imply that I'm lying again I'm going to get annoyed with you."

I sighed and chose discretion over valor. We walked the rest of the way home in silence, Voya ignoring those few people out and about, while I made sure to give respectful tilts of my head to those who realized who we were.

To my vague surprise we reached the front doors at the same time as an extremely bundled up Erana. "Father, Voya. Done with Miss Ayle already?"

"For now." I said, holding the door open for the pair of them before heading inside as well. The warmth from the heaters hit me at once, and I grimaced even as Erana pulled her hood down and groaned in relief. "At least until she finds something else for me to do. Where were you off to?"

"Checking on my sister." She replied, "The doctor said she's doing well, and that they're going to try and wake her up next week."

"We'll be there." I promised, "And yes Voya, 'we' includes you in this case."

My wife let out a mild grumble as we reached the elevators but didn't protest beyond that. "Five hundred credits that she tries to convince us to let her sleep in our bed within the first hour."

"Within two hours." I shook my head as Erana pushed the button for the top floor. "She's probably going to need some time to process her wounds and everything that happened. Erana?"

"I believe I would agree with Voya." She smiled, "And I would put a hundred credits on her trying to kiss one or the other of you as soon as she sees you."

Voya made a disgusted sound that matched her expression as she reached up and removed her helmet. "If she kisses me I'm going to punch her, and if she kisses you I'm going to stab her."

"Just don't hit her anywhere vital." I sighed, "And I'm not taking that bet Erana."

The maiden sighed, "Voya?"

A scoff. "I'd rather not just hand you a hundred credits."

Erana sighed dramatically once more, making me smile and pat her on the shoulder as we arrived. Unfortunately just as Voya had indicated, our home was not nearly as empty as it had been when we'd departed. Men, women, and Asari were packed in and chatting with one another as they sipped from drinks or ate finger food. Evidently Trena had made the decision to also give the Nightblades the same coats as the Lancers, as everyone present had one on.

Mirala was the first person to notice our arrival, the Asari demon stepping over and holding her hands up defensively. "This was not my idea, just want to make that as clear as I fucking can."

"Oh I know whose fault this is." I assured her, already looking around for my prey. "Where is she?"

She relaxed visibly and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Kitchen."

I grunted and made a shooing motion, "Voya, go hurt her."

She didn't need any further motivation and promptly prowled forwards, drawing everyone else's attention our way as the various squad leaders noticed that we'd arrived.

"Honored Reyja'krem." Aya all but shot up out of the couch, giving me an overly formal bow. She'd gotten a new eye patch since I'd seen her last, her lower right eye now covered in a dark silk patch with the corporate logo on it.

"Aya." I sighed, "Didn't I tell you not to bother with the formal crap?"

"...yes," The Batarian woman allowed as she straightened, "But your daughter indicated it would be appropriate given that this is your formal return."

I snapped a hand out just as said daughter attempted to slink away. "Erana..."

"Uh..." She winced, "It was Trena's idea?"

A shriek of pain and a deluge of cursing in two different languages indicated that Voya had found the woman in question, and the difference between the new blood and the old guard was almost comical. The former all began to rise in alarm, a few even reaching for weapons, while most of the others didn't so much as glance towards the screaming and sounds of combat.

"I'm sure it was." I assured her, "But I would still like an explanation as to why all of my future subordinates are in my home when I'm supposed to be on _vacation."_

Mirala stepped in a bit closer, holding a hand out to keep Aya back as she lowered her voice, "It's the first time all our squads are officially online and actually on planet, she thought it would be good for them all to get to know you while they could."

...well, shit.

I could only sigh and shake my head, unable to really argue with that bit of logic as much as I very much wanted to. The Blades had grown far beyond what they'd originally been, back when Voya, Shyeel, Illyan and I had been the entirety of our 'commando' detachment... and we'd lost too many of the old guard over the past year. Most of the faces in the room now were people I'd never even seen before, much less commanded in battle.

They knew me, if you could call it that, by reputation only. By whatever crap was out on the extranet or being told in the various rumors. That would have to change if I was going to command them in the war that was coming.

My mental deliberations were interrupted by a pair of feminine yowls and three individuals emerging from the kitchen. Voya and Trena were both rigid with pain, thanks to Ghai's firm grip on the former's scalp and the latter's crest.

"Cie." The probably eldest Asari present growled in her ruined voice, those few people who hadn't already gone quiet falling silent. "Control."

I lifted an eyebrow, "I'll start when you do."

She rolled her eyes and gave our respective wives a little shove to separate them before heading straight for me. We exchanged a quick hug and she gave me a light kiss on the cheek before she forced a few quiet sentences out. "Good to see you again. Is everything all right?"

"Just the usual messes." I replied softly, "My head is all right so far as I know, but if you want a session tomorrow I won't argue with you."

"I'll be over in the morning." She promised before letting me go and stepping back. "Speech."

Groaning, I glanced around and found that everyone was still quiet. Discounting my family and companions, I counted off eight Asari, three Batarians, Deshi as the only Quarian, and then a single Turian woman all staring at me and clearly waiting for something.

"I don't do speeches." I said, pitching my voice to make sure everyone could hear me. "So we're going to skip that in favor of drinks and food. Trena? Get your tiny ass back in the kitchen and start cooking something. Ghai, Erana, please make sure she doesn't burn everything.. and where's Ethy anyway?"

"Jack's watching her." Trena supplied, explaining just why the tattooed biotic was missing. "Why the fuck am I the one cooking, and where the fuck is Shyeel?"

"Because I'm on vacation, and she said she wanted some space for a couple of weeks." I replied, not terribly concerned. Until Illyan's injury, the four of us had spent almost every day together for years, it probably past time at least one of us went a little stir crazy as a result. "Shoo. As for the rest of you, I think I know about half of you, going to need names and which squads you're running... and fucking _relax_ already, I'm not Ayle. If any of you try and salute me I'm going to consider shooting you."

A confused sounding set of chuckles came out of a few throats, but things generally did ease up a little as a complaining Trena was dragged back into the kitchen. Either taking pity on her, or feeling more at ease in her company than mine, two of the younger Nightblade squad leaders hurriedly introduced themselves before likewise vanishing to help prepare dinner.

Which more or less set the theme for the next hour or two. The Asari that Trena and Ghai had been training in the T'Laria and Eclipse style of assassinations, mind rips, and other assorted clandestine actions seemed to be... not ill at ease so much as unsure of where they fit in. The Lancers, in contrast, were about as boisterous as their predecessors, if a bit more formal.

That was probably Aya's influence, as she and Mirala were now the senior squad leaders. Well, the pair of them along with Deshi, but the young trophy taker had sequestered himself in a quiet corner after a muttered conversation with Voya, content as ever to be his own company.

As I could have expected, I ended up constantly near Aya and her fellow Batarians, a pair of men named Buro and Cheyl, who were determined to remain nearby enough to establish their place in the social hierarchy. I'd have minded more if not for the fact that all three were lowborn and thus not irritatingly overt about it... they merely made sure they were nearby and were quick to introduce me to everyone else and provide details.

If nothing else it made the introductions go quickly, which I appreciated.

There wasn't nearly enough table space or food for everyone, but both were solvable problems considering that almost everyone present lived inside the same building. Though it took a while, within a few hours we managed to clear the living and dining area enough to setup a set of tables in a large rectangle with enough chairs for everyone.

"So," I asked around my pipe, _chehala_ smoke filling the apartment and probably leaving most of the Asari present mildly buzzed. "You've been counter-attacking the pirates who came creeping around?"

"Primarily." Aya nodded as she set her own pipe aside so that she could take a drink, "Captain Trena has had us rotating assignments so that everyone is properly blooded."

I grunted, glancing past where Voya sat on my left to where Trena was sprawled in an armchair that had been dragged over. "Nightblades too?"

"Obviously." She waved a hand at the various maidens, "Young fish aren't always going to get to stab people in the back, sometimes you gotta get shit done the hard way."

Buro stirred from Aya's right, smoke billowing out of his open nose. "They're not the best in a straight fight, but I was rather impressed with their ability as snipers and saboteurs. Senna in particular was quite skilled at the latter."

One of the Nightblades, a petite little Asari about as short as Trena and lacking my companion's muscularity, flushed a little. "That operation was still closer to failure than I'd have liked."

The Batarian male groaned, "We killed them all and suffered no casualties in the process."

"We _barely_ shut down their power before they got the hanger open!" She countered, "Could you imagine how humiliating it would have been for the fleet to have had to finish them off?"

"Embarrassing." I corrected at once, "Humiliation is for something worse than having to be teased or rapped on the head by Joa."

"I... yes." She stumbled, "I just.. it was my team's first mission and..."

Voya groaned, "He's not bitching you out, you'd know if he was. He gets all Batarian when he gets pissed off."

Senna blinked. "Batarian?"

Aya twitched a shoulder, "Rigid, cold, and imperial are the adjectives I believe his wife means. I haven't seen it personally but I've heard rumors."

I sighed, "Do I even want to know?"

Surprisingly most of what was relayed to me wasn't all that inaccurate, if a tad over-flattering when it came to my actual combat skills. If I had to guess, a lot of it came from Erana and Jacqueline, along with the rank and file who had once worked at our old headquarters on Omega. To Voya's annoyance and Trena's amusement a few things were blown out proportion regarding my sex life; evidently I'd been sleeping with all three of my companions ever since we'd gone off on our own.

Still, it was fairly clear that most of the people present were at least slightly in awe of everyone in the old guard. They eagerly recounted the public variations of the various operations and campaigns that we'd fought during the war, and weren't entirely wrong, but they tended to gloss over just how horribly desperate a lot of it had been.

My recounting of the amount of accumulated physical damage that Solus and Aria had been forced to repair for me had visibly shocked most of them. Everyone knew Illyan's status by now, but finding out that Shyeel had survived her fight with Krom thanks to some kind of miracle had sobered things up a bit more than I'd intended.

I was about to start prodding Trena and Voya into starting a second fist fight, thus lightening the mood and providing entertainment, when the moment was stolen by a harsh knock on the door.

* * *

 _ **Next chapter will be Shepard. Quick question to the readership, do these shorter chapters work for you all, or should I try and go back to the steadier 5-6k length?**_

 ** _Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."_**

 _ _ **Thanks, Kat**__


	7. Operation: Return III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Return**

* * *

 **The Shepard**

 _Kaya Shepard_

* * *

I'd only questioned one of the two people I'd come here to see, and my trip to Novgorod was already shaping up to be a disappointment. I felt irrationally annoyed about that, even though I hadn't come here expecting anything else.

Ul Massa had greeted me with everything short of a full military parade, the pomp and ceremony somewhere between annoying and aggravating in the pointless delay it had caused. Especially since I'd known full well that she wasn't doing it to 'honor' me. The Batarian bitch was simply reminding me that I was standing on an armed camp of a planet that could turn hostile in a hurry if I made the wrong moves.

Still, the threat was more hollow than it would have been on Omega. Sure they could probably still evacuate most if not all of their people, but they'd sunk a _lot_ of favors and credits to get this city built and were still in the process of setting up expensive and expansive facilities throughout the solar system. So while they could kill me and bolt back to the relative safety of the Terminus it wasn't something they could do without at least material losses, even assuming the Council didn't catch them first.

It wasn't _quite_ a bluff, they absolutely _would_ try to kill me if I went overboard... but I felt certain I could push the line far harder than I'd been able to during the Collector campaign.

Admittedly that hadn't really gone anywhere during my first meeting. Talking with Ul Massa was like talking with a condescending statue of a woman; she hadn't given me much of anything to work with and had easily denied any involvement with either Cerberus or John's death. According to her, she hadn't seen Miranda in person since our departure after the Collector campaign, and hadn't spoken to her since purchasing information on pirates a few weeks ago.

I didn't believe her in the slightest, but I didn't have any direct evidence on hand to contradict her... which was why Liara and I were now at stop number two.

"According to my father's information," My wife said, "This is the correct floor."

I nodded, "Kasumi is sure he's actually on planet?"

The thief had ghosted out of the ship on arrival, hitting up bars and taverns to question and learn what she could while we wasted our time with Massa. Liara nodded, glancing at her omni-tool one last time before shutting it down. "Yes, evidently he, Chi, and T'Voth all appeared quite suddenly two weeks ago, right after the incident at Horizon."

Incident... that was one word for a multi-billion dollar cruiser being stolen, two marines being killed, and the Butcher of Torfan missing, presumed dead along with the ship's skeleton crew.

"We don't have to do this right away." Liara said quietly, a hand reaching up to touch my armored shoulder. "He's not likely to leave if we take a single day to rest."

"No," I agreed, "But the sooner we get this done with, the sooner we can find Miranda and get some answers."

Liara pressed her lips together as our limited bond let me know she was worried about me. I gave her the most confident nod I could to reassure her before reaching out and pounding on the armored door separating Kean's lair from the elevator.

I half-expected it to open right away, and for Kean to be ready with a smart-ass remark about us just standing around outside of his door.

Instead there was a long enough of a delay that I felt the need to knock again, and it was only after the second time that the door slid open to reveal... well, something like a party.

Maybe a dozen and a half mercenaries from numerous species were all crammed into the penthouse. Most were sitting at mismatched tables that had clearly been brought in from elsewhere, half-eaten food and drink laid out before them. A veritable wall of vanilla scented smoke wafted out the moment the door was removed, and I felt my nose wrinkle even as Liara swayed for a moment before shaking herself.

"Spectre Shepard." Kean's Asari daughter said as she stepped away from the door controls, her voice just slurred enough to tell me that the _chehala_ was impacting the tall young woman. "I'm sorry, but we're rather in the middle of an event."

"I can see that." I said as the surprise faded and the analyzing began. A quick glance was enough to confirm that everyone present except for the girl before me was either wearing an armored trench coat or had one near at hand. A second glance picked out a few faces I recognized from Omega and the Collector base; squad leaders.

"Meet and greet with your new team leaders?" I asked, pitching my voice to ensure it carried.

Kean was seated at the head of the odd table arrangement, smoke trailing from his lips and his pipe as he removed it. "You show up just to state the obvious, or were you after something? Make it fast either way, I'm on vacation and I don't want it ruined by arguing with you."

I exhaled and took a slight step forwards into the apartment, ensuring that I couldn't simply be shut out. Liara followed, staring down the taller maiden who gave ground and slipped out of her way. "I'm here to question you regarding your involvement in the theft of an Alliance warship above Horizon, and the killing of Alliance military personnel."

A diminutive Asari next to Chi snorted out a plume of smoke from her nostrils, "So why the fuck you here talking to us instead of Ayle?"

"That," I said flatly, "Is something I will discuss with Kean once the rest of you leave."

The comment went over as well as I could have expected it to. Wary and mildly annoyed looks immediately shifted to angry expressions and stiff backs. The Batarian on Kean's left seemed the most enraged, and even with how hard I found it to read her kind it was clear that she was restraining herself only through herculean effort.

Kean, being Kean, took his sweet time and a few puffs of his pipe before deigning to reply. "You're here officially as a Spectre then?

My temper flared slightly, "You know god-damned well I am. Are you going to comply or would your rather me question you from the brig on my ship?"

Anger upgraded to hostility at once, hands vanishing beneath the table. A few of the younger looking Asari seemed more uncertain than the others, a bit slow in taking their cues from everyone else, but even they didn't look happy at the threat.

"I'd almost like to see you try that." Kean drawled, clearly noting his subordinates' reactions just as I had. "But... maybe not today. Everyone who is not family can depart for now, we'll finish this once this waste of time is dealt with."

The unhappiness continued at his order, the Batarian female once again the epicenter of the emotion, though this time one of the Asari did act overtly to calm her down. Liara went still beside me as we recognized her as the Ardat'yakshi the Blades had on staff, but no one said anything as she stood up and silently waved for the others to do the same

It took everyone a few minutes to parade out, and the last pair of Asari left reluctantly. The lack of trust was completed when the two T'Laria reached the small entryway, and then made it abundantly clear that they'd be just outside for however long this took. That just let Kean, Chi, and their daughter, with the last vanishing down a hallway when Chi waved for her to go.

Shaking my head, I slapped the door controls and walked forwards. "Two guards outside? You're not doing much to convince me that you weren't involved."

Kean snorted as Liara and I approached, leaning back in his chair. Up close it was easy to see that he hadn't changed that much since our last meeting a few months ago, but what changes were there were noticeable. He had a necklace on, some kind of claw dangling from a simple black rope, and while the rest of his appearance hadn't changed his stature had.

Beside him, Chi looked much the same as ever; her stiff white hair was down and mane-like, and her make-up remained ark and minimalistic. The only real change was that she had traded out her disgusting collection of body parts and trophies for a plain cord like Kean's with just a single shard of Krogan crest on it.

But... both of them seemed far more relaxed now, Kean less stiff and weighted, and Chi had shifted her chair so that she could lounge against his side. The male of the pair blew out more spoke before responding with a negligent shrug, "They're staying to make sure Jacqueline doesn't wander in, unless you want her involved in all of this."

That was true, and I dragged out a chair before leaning on it. "I'm guessing you already know the details?"

Chi stirred beside him, a shoulder rolling in a lazy maneuver. "One of your precious hypocrites is missing, and with any luck the _keshin_ is long dead."

I sucked in a sharp breath and only slowly let it out. "Chi, this isn't the-"

"Kean." She interrupted.

I blinked. "What?"

"My name." She continued, sounding somewhat irritated. "Is Voya'kean. Not Chi."

My mouth opened, then closed as I shook my head once. "You two... all right, that's something but not what I'm here to discuss. Both of you refrain from trying to wind me up. I know you didn't like John-"

"He was a short-sighted hypocritical asshole." Kean provided at once.

"-but he was my _friend._ " I growled, doing my best to ignore what he'd just said. "One of my oldest companions. How would you react if one of the T'Laria or that Shaaryak woman was killed?"

For once I had the pleasure of seeing one of my own barbs strike him, as Kean went still for a long moment before slowly exhaling a stream of smoke before extinguishing his pipe. "I suppose I can see your point."

That didn't exactly mollify me, and I continued to press. "What do you know about what happened?"

"Nothing." He said at once.

Kean was a lot of things, an asshole high among them but he wasn't a very good liar. I don't know what it was, a slight inflection or the way he held himself, but either way I could simply _tell_ that he wasn't being honest with me. I wasn't sure if he'd been directly involved but a bare minimum he'd known that it was coming.

"Miranda was behind it." I pushed, watching them both carefully. "Her story about just trying to cripple the _Gallipoli_ and showing up at the same time as the SIU is so much bullshit and we both know that... how did she pull it off?"

Chi twitched her head slightly, making her wild mane of hair shift in a quiet rustle. "Why would we know?"

Liara stepped forwards, her voice cool and lecturing. "Lawson's Cerberus has limited manpower and limited resources. The AIS identified and cleared out her primary base mere hours after she evacuated it, and she is likely running her entire organization from the _Normandy._ The number of combat agents she has is assuredly less than a dozen after the losses at the Collector base... if she was undertaking an operation like this, she would need help."

"The kind of help," I pointed out, "That you have proven all too willing to offer her in the past."

And the fact that I knew that Miranda would have gone straight to him for said help annoyed me nearly as much as everything that had happened today. I'd tried to reach out to Miranda, I'd tried to help her, and thought I'd made some kind of progress... but by the end of our working relationship it had become clear that she preferred Kean's company to my own. I'd wanted to help her grow, to become something better, where he simply tolerated and accepted who she was.

She'd chosen the easier road, sending me cryptic messages but not responding to my outreach efforts.

Kean made a disgusted sound, "I'm getting really sick of people referencing Benihi."

I crossed my arms and glowered at him, "Where were you two weeks ago?"

"Xentha." Chi answered as she crossed her own arms.

...my teeth ground a little at the response, even if I'd expected it. "And you just happened to return her right after the theft of the _Gallipoli_?"

"Yes." She stated, her expression and posture all but demanding I _try_ to call her out on that. Which I fucking couldn't and everyone present knew it. I had suspicious but no real proof and I would never get actionable proof from anyone on Xentha or from the SBC.

I was opening my mouth when Liara shifted her body-weight, glancing up and down the Quarian's seated form. She'd clearly noticed something that I hadn't, but then she was probably far more clear-headed than I was right now. "Voya'kean... where are your trophy necklace and belt? I don't think I've ever seen you wearing anything else."

"That was before I was bonded." Chi stated. "This was his greatest kill."

"Endearing." Liara said flatly. "And please answer the question."

Wide glowing blinked once. "I left them with the High Elder on Xentha. I'm retired now."

Chi wasn't all that much better of a liar than Kean was, and I felt my breath hitch for a moment. "You fucking bitch. You killed him and took something, didn't you?"

The petite woman said nothing, merely pressing her thin lips together as she stared back at me.

I worked through the logic in my head, the words slowly coming out. "You both hated him... and Miranda knew about the Corsair plan to assassinate those two pirate warlords. That could have destabilized the Traverse, something you'd want to avoid given that you're still setting up here. You wouldn't want pirates and the Alliance forces blasting away openly at each other, maybe drawing in the Hegemony on top of that."

Neither of them spoke, or did anything besides blink and regard me stoically.

"You'd have leaped at the excuse." I felt my fingers curl in anger, "You kill someone who actively hated you, you put Miranda in your debt, and you might even get a hold of one of the most advanced warships in the galaxy. All without anyone being able to confirm you were even fucking involved."

Kean leaned back slightly in his chair, his pale green eyes lidded. "Interesting theory Shep, but I'm afraid we were both on Xentha on our honeymoon."

I had to force my voice to remain even, Liara wincing in the corner of my vision as she felt my anger rising exponentially. "I'm a Spectre, Kean. I don't need proof or evidence, I just need an excuse."

Chi let out a very low mewling sound, something close to a growl. "Think about where you are before you accuse us, bitch."

I didn't want to think, I wanted to give into the anger like I might have when I was younger. I wanted to kill the smug little assassin who'd killed the first man I could honestly say that I'd loved. We'd grown apart after training, had moved on, but we'd never forgotten one another. Now he was dead, his corpse probably ejected into space to remove the evidence, and the little psychopath would have taken his dog tags or a piece of his _body_ just to inflate her social dick among her twisted profession.

"I'm going to arrest the both of you." I informed them coldly. Beside me, Liara winced slightly when the pair of mercenaries gave me scathing looks.

"And where," Kean asked acidly, "Where would you imprison us? The Alliance so that TIM can kill us in a week? The Citadel so that the Matriarch can do it? Just leave us to rot on your ship for months on end until the Reapers show up? Fuck off Shepard, we're not going anywhere and you bloody well know it."

My fury crested, and for a brief moment my biotics sent blue light flaring down arms from my neck. It was only Liara placing a restraining hand on my shoulder that stopped me from doing something that would have gotten us both killed.

"Kaya." She murmured. "The only thing that happens if we fight is that all four of us will die."

I _knew_ that... but I didn't want to accept it. In truth I didn't want to arrest them either, I didn't want to waste time with legal crap. I wanted to revert entirely to the bloody teenage girl I'd been on the streets and just dispense justice _my_ way. I wanted to avenge my old friend, I wanted to see justice done on the smug criminals in front of me.

But if I did... Liara and I could kill them, I knew that. They were good, but neither was a biotic, and neither had a helmet on. After that though... after that everyone in this building would hear it, and we would never make it back to the _North Cape_. The ship itself would probably be stormed and seized, the crew executed, and then the entire thing covered up somehow.

The truth would come out sooner rather than later, Ash and the Alliance wouldn't let it slide. But... we'd never know, because we would all be dead. Other people would have to help prepare the galaxy for the Reapers. Other people would have to search for the Matriarch and the Leviathans. Other people would have to care for Aethyta when she lost another daughter. For Ash when she lost another friend.

"Christ but I hate you." I whispered as I shook my head, gently pushing Liara back. "Here I thought we had some kind of arrangement, but that didn't mean anything in the end did it?"

Kean blinked slowly, something vaguely regretful in the way he let out a long breath before speaking. "I'm sorry you feel that way, and that you think we were involved."

I scoffed. "I'm not recording you, you don't have to be politically correct."

The lack of trust was blatantly obvious by the way neither of them said a thing in response.

Shaking my head, I forced myself to continue. "You officially refuse to accept a lawful arrest order from a Council Spectre?"

"Yes." Chi replied, "You have no evidence against us and we deny any involvement."

"You know that as soon as I get back to my ship I'll be able to inform the Council of this." I told them both, "And I'll get official arrest orders that your corporation will have to accept."

Kean lifted an eyebrow and his lips twisted into a sardonic smile.

Liara rubbed at her face beside me, "The FTL buoys in system are going to mysteriously fail or require urgent maintenance, won't they?"

Silence... Chi smirked slightly.

I did some quick mental math and felt my anger stir again. It would take us at least two days to get the nearest system with a buoy, and then another two days to get back. The pair of them would be long gone by the time I returned, probably off to wherever Miranda was hiding. They wouldn't be worried for the Blades as a whole, they were correct in my lack of evidence and I highly doubted the Massa would have been so stupid to keep records of arranging the mission.

And a majority of the Council would be quick to shut down anything that didn't result in immediate proof of involvement. The Blades were simply too valuable in stabilizing this sector as the Hegemony continued to shudder and shake itself apart, and they were in the know and preparing for the Reapers.

"You're going to be wanted for the rest of your lives." I told them as I braced myself for being forced to leave without doing anything further. "Massa will have to fire you to keep the Council happy. If I ever see you again, I'm going to arrest you, and I will find the proof I need to make sure you're both locked away."

"Goodbye, Shepard." Kean replied, "I'll see you when the Reapers show up."

My fists clenched as I forced my body to turn around, Liara silently following as we left the murderers behind.

* * *

 _ ** **Alliance Communications Logs; SSV North Cape****_

 _Spectre Shepard: Dammit Ash, I know they're involved. They all but admitted it!_

 _Spectre Williams: I believe you skipper but we don't have anything on them! The AIS spooks are convinced that Lawson's telling the truth and it was the SIU, and the STG guys you convinced Valern to bring in are convinced that it was Lawson and Cerberus assets alone._

 _Spectre Shepard: Miranda doesn't have the personnel to pull it off, not after the Collector base. She lost too many of her combat agents and according to the Broker most of what she's got left are scattered around the Traverse._

 _Spectre Williams: Maybe, but she's got two AI with mobile platforms and plenty of skill in infiltration... not saying I believe it was a solo job, but that's the argument that the Salarians are making._

 _Spectre Shepard: Dammit... and you're sure_ _ _Gunddarsen__ _wouldn't back an arrest warrant?_

 _Spectre Williams: He said he doesn't want any adventurism in the Traverse when we need to be preparing for the Reapers and investigating what's going on in the Republics. He already said he called the PM and told him to the get the AIS and Corsairs in line before the Council did it for him._

 _Spectre Shepard: ...and Sparatus won't support me, he's invested too much in Kean and the SBC, and Calyn doesn't do anything unless you give him direct evidence._

 _Spectre Williams: I hate to say it Shep, but I think we're going to have leave them alone for now and focus on tracking down Lawson and the ship she stole._

 _Spectre Shepard: I don't want to say you're right. God but I don't... you know Chi took something from him._

 _Spectre Williams: ...I know Shep. Look, we can still use our authority to arrest them if we see them, we just won't have a official order. We could bring them to Earth, plenty of lawyers would line up to prosecute them even if we don't have much._

 _Spectre Shepard: It's an idea... god dammit. _Gunddarsen is calling, let's link up at El Dorado and see if the STG and AIS have managed to agree on anything.__

 _ _Spectre Williams: See you there.__

* * *

 _ _ **Author's Note;**__

 _ _And the relationship between Shepard and Cieran is about as obliterated as you all expected it to be. The fallout from this will obviously linger and last throughout the remainder of the series, so don't expect it to go away.__

 _ _In the next chapter we'll see Illyan's return to the world of the awake and just how much damage she did to herself in Hellhounds, and then we're going to be moving on to the next operation as the first maneuvers are made in advance of the final war.__

 _ _ **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**__

 ** _ **Thanks, Kat**_**


	8. Operation: Return IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Return**

* * *

 **Pillar of Strength**

 _Illyan T'Donna_

* * *

I stared at my body, my sheets thrown aside, the useless medical gown likewise removed. The doctors and nurses would probably be upset about that when they came in and found my naked ass in the morning, but I didn't really care. I had to see my body for myself, had to view the damage, had to... just process it.

It had taken the doctors and Erana a while to run me through everything, mostly because the sheer amount of the damage was... was... well, Cieran would tell me that I'd managed to overdo it for the last time and he wouldn't be wrong.

I'd fried most of my secondary nervous system, __really__ burned it this time. The damage had raced up into my brain, triggering the seizures that had put me down, and then spread to the rest of my body from there. I'd had another even as they'd fought to save my life, making things even worse. I'd suffered from brain damage that they weren't sure that they'd been entirely able to fix.

My biotics were gone. Just... gone. Regeneration might eventually stitch my secondary nerves and their undersized eezo nodes back together, but the doctors had been clear that I'd never again be able to call on dark energy again without risking my life. To that end they'd actually implanted cybernetic nullifiers into my neck and spine, ensuring that even if I __did h__ eal naturally, I'd never be able to touch the power.

They weren't sure if I could meld anymore, either, though they were more optimistic about that than most of the rest. Ghai would be by at some point to gently poke around, now that I was awake, to see if there was any chance of me being able to initiate anything. But even if I __could__ start a meld with someone, the odds of my battered brain being able to send the right signals to my womb was minimal. They'd pegged the odds of sterility somewhere above eighty percent.

Because that wasn't enough, the part of my head responsible for my sense of balance had been damaged. I'd probably need a cane for the goddess knew how long, and they thought I had a high chance of developing motion sickness or vertigo over the tiniest little waves. They _also_ weren't sure if my senses had been compromised, if I'd still be able to feel electrical fields at all... or if I'd feel shit that wasn't there constantly and go crazy as a result.

Athame's azure... all of that wasn't even getting to the fucking physical damage I'd suffered.

I stared down at my nude form, trying to reconcile what I was seeing against what I remembered from just yesterday. My left leg that had been on the road to natural recovery was now riddled with cybernetics. What few muscles I hadn't torn apart in my berserker state had gotten cut when I'd been shot repeatedly in that limb, and my body's regeneration had been... incomplete given the amount of damage, the shock, and then the seizures.

They'd torn out most of the remaining muscles for myomer implants, leaving that thigh the only part of me that still looked fit and in shape. The rest of me looked wasted and thin from nearly three months of coma; my arms and right leg too thin and sunken, even my tits were sagging a bit. Serious scars covered my left side from where that warpfire had hit me, covering most of my arm and shoulder. They'd had to replace two of my fingers on that hand when they'd started to grow back incorrectly, giving me something else to have to adjust to.

I would need months of rehab... maybe more surgeries, if my regeneration tried to fuck with the cybernetics.

Even then I'd be... a cripple. For the rest of my life... seven or eight centuries of limping around on a cane, never having my own children, unable to use biotics like every other member of my species. I'd need constant supervision to make sure I didn't start seizing up again. I might never be able to jog, much less run properly, and there was __no__ _c_ hance that I'd ever be allowed into a battle again.

I don't know when I started crying, but I felt the salty liquid running down my face, dripping onto my chest.

My hands rose and covered my eyes as I tried to stop myself from sobbing. I didn't really manage it, but I might have muffled the sounds a little. It still distracted me to the point where I didn't realize I wasn't alone until I heard an annoyed sigh and Voya's voice.

"If she's going to keep this up I'm not staying. I don't do crying."

I snapped my hands down and jerked my head around to see the Quarian moving to stand beside my bed, Cieran settling into the chair beside her and I while Shyeel was at the doctor's station poking around in the files.

The three of them looked different enough to drive home the fact that I'd been out for most of a few months, but not so different that I didn't nearly sob again but in relief that they were all here, all alive.

The blue streaks in Cieran's hair had shifted location, and he might have been a bit more relaxed, while Voya had gone back to leaving her hair loose. Across the room, Shyeel looked like she was actually wearing make up, and for once none of the three were in armor. They still had their coats on, but they were over-top of plain uniforms rather than plating.

"And she's naked." Voya rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms, "That didn't take very long."

I opened my mouth but only a kind of choked laugh came out. "...hey everyone."

"Hey." The Quarian glowered at me while Cieran smiled and Shyeel snickered quietly. "After the shit you pulled, the only thing you have to say is 'hey'."

"Uh..." I swallowed, trying to work through the confusing maelstrom of emotions in my chest. "...I'm sorry?"

Voya stared at me flatly. "Do you have any idea how much you worried this idiot male? Never-mind Shyeel freaking out right after the mission, or us having to break the news to Erana and deal with _that._ I'm pretty sure she's starting to view me as some kind of mother figure next to Cieran and I blame _you_ entirely for not being there to tell her how terrible of an idea that is."

Oh goddess. "...I'm really sorry?"

She scoffed, then with a quick move that I didn't have a prayer of stopping, sucker-punched me in the right tit.

Pain exploded through my chest, and I let out a breathless whimper that might have been a scream if I'd had the energy to be that loud. I was only barely aware of Cieran pulling her back and then gently tugging the blankets back up and over me before stepping back.

"You," Voya growled, evidently having been made the spokeswoman for this particular dressing down. "Didn't think. _Again._ We don't want an apology we want a bloody explanation."

I coughed and sucked in a breath, winced, then tried again and managed to find my voice. "I... saw Shyeel go down. Everyone else was engaged... fighting... dying. You two were out. I had to do something."

"So even though you were already wounded," She countered, "And crippled, you ripped off your nullifier and grabbed that fucking war-hammer."

"I..." I shook my head and lowered my eyes a little, "I didn't know if you two were even alive. I thought... I thought I was about to be the last one. Goddess, just that thought made me see red, and I... just lost it."

Voya snorted and shook her head, making her long mane rustle softly. "You lost it all right, lost the ability to ever really recover and come with us in a fight again. Now you're just a giant, used up cripple of a maiden we have to take care of."

The exhaustion abruptly washed out to sea and a sullen anger replaced it. "Thank you, Voya. I didn't fucking know that. Guess I was just crying for no reason."

She scoffed, "You don't have anything to really cry over yet. You can do that when we're all fighting the Matriarch and her space squid, when you're stuck behind with Erana wondering if we're all going to come back or-"

I wasn't in any shape to get up and swing at the little bitch, but I gave it my best shot. Voya negligently blocked my weak punch, grabbed my wrist and my shoulder, and then shoved me right back into bed. Gritting my teeth, I thrashed a little, not accomplishing much of anything besides exhausting myself further.

"Bitch..." I panted.

Voya's upper lip pulled back from her ivory teeth as she leaned in to glare at me. "You nearly got yourself torn apart by a fucking _bug,_ and you did it about three seconds before those two AI would have dealt with the situation."

"I... didn't know..." I protested. "Shyeel was about to be impaled!"

"She got a-" Shyeel's voice cut off when Voya turned to give her an absolutely vicious glare.

My small smile at the show of support likewise died when she turned that expression on me, continuing in the same angry, frustrated tones. "Do you have any idea what it would have been like for us to wake up and find out that you'd gotten killed?"

"I..."

The hand on my wrist let go, snapping out to grab my throat before I could finish. "I do _not_ like being introspective, and you didn't even have the proper manners to wait until after you finished your bizarre campaign to seduce me before nearly getting yourself killed. I _did_ not appreciate having to actually contemplate what you meant to me while you laid there."

"I..." I croaked around her rather solid grip. "...I'm sorry?"

She sniffed and let go, stepping back with a huff. "Be glad that Cieran is still far too lenient with his friends."

I coughed again, clearing my throat a little. "Uh.. do I want to know?"

Cieran smiled sardonically and spoke up for the first time, "She wanted to make sure you learned never to worry her like that again. You can use your imagination."

My brain, or what was left of it, was too whiplashed to properly do so. One minute Voya had been deliberately pissing me off, the next she'd... admitted she'd been terrified for me. Or at least as much as it was physically possible for her to do so.

Did that mean...?

"Voya's temper aside," Cieran continued before I could try and figure out the right question to ask, "It's good to see you awake. Even better, I can give you good news and bad news as per usual."

I had no idea how to react to Voya _finally_ saying that she kind-of, maybe, sort-of cared about me. I did, however, know exactly what to do with that sentence. I groaned as theatrically as I could and slumped back in my hospital bad, "...Shy, you were supposed to stop them from doing anything complicated."

"I tried. "The matron sighed, "But you know Voya. There was a chance to go kill an asshole with a big name and she just couldn't resist."

Voya let out an irritated sounding mewl but tellingly didn't deny it.

The three of them began to relate everything that had happened over the last few months while I'd been in my medical coma, but the sound of my friend's voices combined with the exhaustion meant that I didn't make it much beyond their arrival on Xentha before I couldn't keep my eyes open.

When I jerked back into consciousness a few hours later, Cieran was the only person present. Closing the antique book he'd been reading, he wordlessly swung a tray full of food in front of me and didn't speak again until I'd eaten everything. Which wasn't all that hard, there wasn't all that much, but what was there tasted absolutely amazing.

Fresh fruits and vegetables from Illium, warm bread in the Batarian style with butter lathered over it, and cool slices of steak from some animal I didn't recognize but that fell apart in my mouth.

"Wipe your face." He sighed as he took the tray away, "You ate like Trena."

"Sorry." I mumbled around the last bit, downing some water from a glass before handing that over as well. Another wave of exhaustion hit me as I finished, the mere act of eating and drinking enough to nearly knock me out, but I stubbornly shook it off and tried to focus. "Sorry for last night too."

One of the dark ridges of fur above his eyes rose. "It was the day before yesterday, and you've woken up once since then. Erana fed you, or tried to. You passed out in the middle of that particular meal."

I opened my mouth but all I managed a was a quiet. "...oh."

He shook his head once, "It's expected, given everything that you've been through. From what you implied though, you at least remember the three of us visiting."

"Yeah... you were telling me about what happened."

Cieran nodded, settling down into the chair once more before resuming the story. How the three of them had gone to Xentha and almost immediately gotten involved with a plot involving Voya's extended family and other groups in the Old District who were less than happy with the direction the High Elder was taking it. How they'd done their best not to get involved... and then gotten involved anyway.

Once they were involved, they'd been _involved_ , dealing with assassins, back-stabbing, and politics that had resulted in them spending time on the run, two weeks in the Lady Warlord's palace as guests, Cie and Voya had gotten bonded, then-

"Wait." I rasped, "You two...? You?"

"Yes, yes, it's official. She's Voya'kean vas wherever we happen to be right now." He smiled a little at his own joke, though I was too busy gaping to reply. "Oh calm down, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later."

"Yeah... but... later?" I managed.

Cie rolled a shoulder, "It was an avenue of attack against her family on Xentha. Don't worry too much about it, we've got much bigger problems thanks to what came after that mess."

I honestly didn't believe that until he resumed talking, telling me about Lawson showing up and how it had taken the human female about fifteen seconds to convince Voya that vacation was boring and that running off to murder Corsairs was just the thing to warm up the water. How their first mission had gone well but lead to their second, where they'd gone off and killed a bloody Alliance celebrity and stolen his ship.

"Goddess..." I shook my head tiredly when he finished. "I finally get to say that you overdid it boss."

"Yeah, yeah." He sighed, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. "Something that probably had to be done, but it's going to be another one of those things that hunts us."

"How bad?" I asked.

He pursed his lips, "About what you'd expect, which is why we're out on Thulodon instead of on Novgorod proper."

When I simply blinked in confusion, he explained, "It's a dead rock in space, out near the system's outer cloud. The pirates who stopped over at the colony before the bugs hit it used it as a base. So far as we know neither the Council nor the old fish know about it, and we're going to try and keep it that way."

I winced. "...that bad?"

His chest swelled and then an explosive sigh came out, "It's better than we thought but not by much. Keep in mind we don't really have any contacts on the Citadel right now besides Sparatus, and he's not offering much. As best we can tell Shepard went for a straight arrest warrant for me and Voya but couldn't swing the votes, so she got crafty."

"Crafty?"

"Yeah." He shrugged once more, "She doesn't have direct proof that we were involved, but she _could_ use the fact that we obviously know Miranda well and worked with her routinely against us... and pretty much everyone agrees that her Cerberus was involved somehow. So she went to C-Sec and got them to issue an order that I show up to be questioned on Miranda's whereabouts."

Which we'd actually have to pay attention to know that we were a Citadel corporation, and probable obligated as some kind of citizen or something.

Tiredly lifting a hand, I covered a yawn before replying, "...so when you refused to go to the Citadel and get arrested by her, she could say you're hiding something and get the Council to upgrade the questioning thing to a full warrant?"

Cie waved a hand in a agreeing fashion, "Which put pressure on Ayle to turn us over, or would have if we hadn't 'gone back on vacation' right after Shepard left. The optics are still horrible and she's had to put Voya and I on suspension, at least on the official record books."

I shook my head a little, "And... unofficially?"

"Now that you're awake, we're going back to our base on Xentha." He replied, "All of the Lancers and Nightblades are coming with, we're going to make that our temporary commando headquarters. Shepard will be able to scream and rant all she wants but even she doesn't have a big enough quad to go after us there."

I started to nod, then frowned, "Erana too?"

"Of course." Cieran said, "She'll be helping with your physical therapy, but most of that is going to be Voya."

My heart dropped at once. "...please no."

He gave me an somewhat severe look, "Shyeel and I are going to be occupied handling the fallout from this, and dealing with a few other issues that my wife isn't... temperamentally suited for."

I was too tired to really think through just what in the Athame's sacred name _that_ meant, but I wasn't so tired as to not continue protesting. "She's going to kill me. You heard her before, that was uncalled for... right?"

"It probably was," A warm hand reached out to pat my shoulder, "Shyeel and I both think you saved Shy's life, we just wanted to let Voya vent a little. Sorry."

"I... why?"

"Because she wasn't lying when she said she was furious with you for nearly getting killed right in the middle of you trying to seduce her." He pointed out as bluntly as ever, "Thus making her actually think about what you meant to her beyond being an annoying companion she put up with for my sake."

"And," I shook my head, "What did she decide?"

"That," Cie reminded me, "Is between the pair of you. That's why she's going to be handling your therapy, so you'll have some time together to figure things out. I made her promise to not hurt you and to take things carefully, so don't worry too much. Just focus on getting better."

The last word punctured my confusion and left me sinking right back down into the depths. "...or as better as I can be."

"Stop that." He admonished at once, the gentle touch on my shoulder replaced with an annoyed strike. "We're not about to fucking abandon you, not after everything we've been through together. And besides, there's a bright side."

It was my turn to stare flatly. "...what?"

Cieran gestured at my body, "You're not going to be able to sleep alone anytime soon in case you have a relapse in the middle of the night. We could always set up alarms but those could fail or be sabotaged."

I felt my lips part, then a quiet snort came out. "Bonded males aren't supposed to invite other women to their bed Cie. At least, I think that's a rule, isn't it?"

" _I'm_ not inviting anyone." He stated piously, "I'm merely pointing out something you'd have come up with in a day or two anyway so that you'll stop moping."

"I was not-" Another yawn broke my words apart, "-moping."

"You were moping." Cieran smiled slightly as he stood up, "Go back to sleep, I have to get going for the day. Voya and Shyeel will be by later with more food, and if things go well with my next meeting they'll probably help get you moved to the ship we're taking."

"Stay?" I asked before he could leave, "Please?"

He looked down at me, a hand reaching up to stroke the braided fur around his mouth... then he sighed and slowly sat back down. "Go to sleep Illyan. We're not going anywhere."

Both of those sounded good to me.

* * *

 _ **Unknown Server**_

 _Unknown 1: What the hell do you think you're doing Jack?_

 _Unknown 2: What I must do to preserve humanity._

 _Unknown 1: To preserve... are you out of your goddamned mind!? We finally get assets in place to seriously make a move in the Traverse and you let your wayward little bitch kill one of our best men and steal a ship that we badly needed!_

 _Unknown 2: You-_

 _Unknown 1: And now we both know that it's the hands of that Batarian cunt, and you're not even giving Shepard and Williams the proper leash they need to bring those mercenaries to heel! Give me one reason why I shouldn't out you this very minute!_

 _Unknown 2: You never were much good at considering the long term circumstances Johann... I'm sorry. You have done great things for our species, but we are moving into a phase of the game were your skills and initiatives have become a liability._

 _Unknown 1: I don't like your tones, Jack, or what you're implying._

 _Unknown 1: Jack?_

 _Unknown 1: You son of a bitch. I hope they broadcast what that stuck up bird does to you when he... what the? Son of a-!_

 _ **movement recorded**_

 _ **gunshot recorded.**_

 _ **gunshot recorded.**_

 _ **numerous gunshots recorded.**_

 _ **scream, human male recorded.**_

 _Unknown 3: It is done._

 _Unknown 2: Thank you, Kai. Please arrange the body as we discussed, then you may take the remainder of the month off. I will need you well rested in advance of our next move._

 _Unknown 3: Understood, and you have my thanks in return sir._

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _And we get a glimpse of Illyan's condition (summary; not great, as expected), and she gets a quick recap plus a few hints as to what is going on elsewhere and what will be happening in the future. From this point on we're going to be moving away from the partial slice-of-life chapters in favor of the ramp-up for the final war. There still will be some more... domestic scenes, but they'll be short and probably tacked on as secondary POV's._

 _Regarding the last chapter and Shepard's reaction; I tried to make it clear that had she run into Cieran and Voya anywhere besides Novgorod there_ _ **would**_ _have been bloodshed, and she's not going to be letting this go... probably ever. She was aware of the Butcher's less than admirable traits, they're part and parcel of why their relationship didn't work out, but he was still her friend in the end._

 _As she pointed out, would Cieran be any more rational if Nynsi was killed, despite the fact that they're long separated?_

 _For_ _ **Angelform**_ _, I think that's a factor of points of view mostly. We've spent so much time in Cieran & Company's heads that it's easy to forget how they'd be viewed in almost any other story. Case in point, while they were acting to try and stop a sector-wide blow-up... they still launched a commando raid on a foreign warship, killed it's commander and crew, and then stole it. Even if the Butcher hadn't been on board Shepard would have been entirely in her rights to flip out on them for the piracy/terrorism/etc. _

**_LogicalPremise_** _, that's going to be in the summary of story 9 as an advertisement._

 ** **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."****

 _ **Thanks, Kat**_


	9. Operation: Long Echoes I

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Long Echoes**

* * *

 **The Silver Blade**

 _Cieran Kean_

 **Date** : 06-02-2187

 **Location** _:_ Afterlife VIP Lounge, Omega, Sahrabarik System

* * *

"Of all of the innumerable places in the galaxy that that we could be doing this," I sighed into my drink, "It just had to fucking be Omega."

Beside me, Nynsi let out a prim little whistling sigh between her teeth. "I recall a time when you actually made an effort to control your language."

"I still do, from time to time." I frowned a little, "Though that's usually only when Lady T'Ravt is around."

Which technically she was, though on the far side of the massive room, surrounded by white armored courtiers and aides.

"Let me rephrase, I remember a time when you avoided being uncouth in public at all." She countered. "Though I suppose I should be grateful that you have not descended to T'Laria's level just yet."

I snorted and shook my head, leaning back as best I could in the booth. For once Aria had elected against holding her gathering in one of the typical amphitheater style rooms; instead her people were directing everyone to Afterlife's largest VIP lounge. The various warlords, gangsters, pirates, and mercenaries who made up the elite of the Terminus were almost universally approving of the location, singing the Queen's praises as they sipped alcohol or indulged in smoking.

There were both more and fewer people than the last time I'd had to attend something like this. Plenty of old faces seemed to missing, probably victims of Aria's consolidation efforts, while other persons from the Traverse were actually present for once.

Cessa of all people was actually present, Zaeed looming protectively over the surprisingly small and delicate looking Asari in her plain black armor, while Tirravan and Besaid were lingering nearby as well... though their entourages kept throwing glares at one another. Nor were they the only ones, as usual there was plenty of jockeying for position and mutters as the various rivals were forced to act as though they didn't want to murder one another.

Thankfully our little corner of the place was the quietest, being claimed exclusively by our fellow mercenaries. While I didn't doubt there was just as much bad blood between at least a few of them, the fucking Scarlet Tears were here after all, we all had enough professional pride to make it clear we were above the kind of petty crap that the pirates were indulging in.

Movement in the booth beside ours drew my attention. Aeri B'Val, owner of Bluewave Securities, shifted so that she was leaning on the divider between us. "Who are we missing?"

"Sederis." I provided with a tired shake of my head, "Goddess knows if she's just making a statement, or if she and Aria are too busy having hate-sex to bother showing up."

The Asari scoffed, "I wouldn't be surprised either way."

"Me either." I agreed, "How's Redcliffe treating you?"

Her face twisted slightly, "It's a goddess-damned hellhole is what is. You just had to fucking bail, didn't you? I'm using damn near my entire company to try and calm the waves there, but outside of Hintertown it's a bloody mess."

I shrugged, "There's a reason we weren't all that interested in keeping the place."

"Yeah, well..." She exhaled, "I figured you were just trying to escape being used as a pawn by Aria and Sederis in their little spat."

"That," Nynsi noted, "Was indeed a factor, but it was hardly the only one. We had just as little desire to be locked onto a single world on the rimward side of Omega."

"Neither do I." B'Val lowered her voice, "We're leaving next month, I talked that idiot ul Feshin into taking the contract and Aria signed off on it."

That made me sit up a little, "That asshole running War-Front? Aria wants _him_ to run the place? He's going to wreck it... or wreck whatever is left of it."

The Asari snorted, "It's already way past wrecked outside of the cities we're garrisoning, but so long as the heavy industry keeps running I don't think Aria is going to care. Not that _I_ care anymore either way."

"Mmm, fair point." I shook my head, "Where are you going?"

"Same direction everyone else is." She replied, "Coreward and Spinward."

I was about to ask for more details but the last greater warlord arrived before I could say as much. Sederis, as always, strode in as though she owned the place, her loose golden robes exposing plenty of skin... and exposing the immense personal arrogance it took to walk into a crowd like this without armor. Her only weapon was a warp sword loosely belted to one side, though I noted that both Leska and Ithiri were far more appropriately armed and protected as they followed their mother.

Aside from a terse glance with Nynsi, I did my best not to move very much. The last thing I wanted was to draw her attention... unfortunately that was around the same time as Shyeel returned with extra drinks, and something about her movements must have drawn Leska's attention. She clearly noted us at once, nudged her mother, and then all three shifted direction.

"Good luck." B'Val murmured as she rose, seeing the sharks coming and sensibly getting the fuck out their way.

Nor was she the only one. On our other side, General Sulla and his entourage rose up as well, and the leaders of the Death Legion, the Scarlet Tears, War-Front, and a half-dozen smaller groups all quickly cleared out as well.

Leaving us conspicuously alone when Sederis arrived.

"The scarred cripple, the unworthy heiress, and the impertinent human." Jona mused as she stared down at us, remaining standing rather than lowering herself to sit among us. "Well then, isn't this a pleasant surprise. I will have to thank Aria for giving me such a present."

Nynsi began to stir, stopping when Shyeel wordlessly put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head once. My old lover may have been our official ambassador, and technically Shyeel and I were merely here as security, but Jona was... not the kind of person who could be negotiated with in the typical sense.

"Jona." I greeted her as politely as I could, making a point to grab the glass of rum that Shyeel had brought back for me. "You still have lipstick on your abs, I suppose that where you and Aria have been... or did you find someone else?"

The Queen of the Eclipse let out a low pleased sound from her throat, "I have no need to sleep with anyone lesser when I can force a Queen to kneel."

I hummed quietly, tapping a finger against my glass. "Somehow I doubt that's quite how that went... probably because I can see the bruises on your arms and your left breast."

"Few things are as enjoyable as sex and violence placed together." She smirked at me, "Something you know just as well from the scars I can still see on your neck."

Letting out a quiet sigh, I dipped my head to acknowledge that she'd won the point. But hopefully the casual talk would put her in a good enough mood that this would go better than I feared. "Hello Leska, Ithiri. Good to see you both."

"Likewise." Leska said as she walked past her mother, settling down into the booth just beyond the one vacated by B'Val. She, a least, was polite enough to give us the illusion of space. "We've missed your blunt assessments these past few months... was the notion being beholden to us so repulsive?"

"I didn't care to be used as a pawn between yourselves and Aria." I said.

Jona let out a snort. "So instead you elect to become a pawn between dear Yan and the Council. I fail to see how such a thing is an upgrade over the luxuries of my mansion."

The difference was obvious; T'Ravt and the Council were _far_ less likely to kill me and everyone I knew if they got in a snit, but even I wasn't quite so tactless as to say to that directly to Sederis. So instead I simply shrugged, sipped some rum, and replied, "What can I say, Xentha grew on me."

"I'm sure." From her tones, Sederis clearly had no issues reading between the lines and was less than impressed with my decision. "I remain disappointed with your theft of several members of the T'Laria family, and your pathetic little alliance against me with Aria."

I let out a quick breath, not surprised that the 'secret' treaty wasn't all that secret. "First of all, Musio and her assistants would return to Illium if you demanded it and we both know that, so you're just bitching about Trena and Ethy again. Which is a complete waste of time since you also know that I have exactly as much say over her life as you do."

"He's got you there." Ithiri noted as she took the spot across from Leska, sprawling in a way that made her far more dignified sister turn her nose up. "That little bitch is the most T'Laria T'Laria there is."

The comment made me roll my eyes a little. "That about sums that up, yes. As far as the other matter, I thought you'd be able to see through the surface on that. The agreement is a strictly defensive one assuming you move against Aria within a decade of the Reapers being dealt with."

"And," Nynsi added, her pride not able to leave her silent this long. "Even if you were to do such a thing, Lady T'Ravt is highly unlikely to honor her own arrangement with Aria, much less allow us safe passage through her territory to join such a war."

Jona gave her a flat look, then returned her gaze to me, making it clear she still considered me to be the person she needed to deal with. "Perhaps I was not clear. The fact that I was not consulted nor informed of your decision, and that you fled Illium covertly, are things that I found incredibly insulting."

"I didn't want our assets there seized and our people detained." I said, carefully keeping the very real tense worry I felt out of my voice. Jona was at her most dangerous when she was calm and concise, and I hadn't been away for so long to have forgotten that. "Neither I or Ayle particularly wanted to relocate to the Traverse, dealing with the Council is an extreme pain, but you and Aria are clearly on a collision course."

My words didn't defuse the situation, but I was simply glad that they didn't seem to enrage her either. She spared a glance for the main entrance as Aria's usual entourage began to appear before their Queen, and then turned back to me, "We will discuss this later, human... and that discussion _will_ occur before you leave this station."

As much as I wanted to refuse... I simply nodded to show I understood, then watched her turn and glide past her daughters before taking an entire booth's worth of space for herself.

"Well... shit." Shyeel murmured, leaning forwards as Nysni and I did the same after making sure that Leska and Ithiri were busy arguing over one another's drink selections and unable to focus on listening in. "Was really hoping we could avoid that bitch."

"Quite." Nynsi agreed with a tiny nod. "Do you think she will attempt to entrap us somehow?"

"Hard to say." I whispered, "It's Jona, so something overt and reckless is always possible, but I think it's more likely we're about to become involuntary hosts for an Eclipse outpost, or one of us is about to be forcibly invited to her mansion."

My former Tarath'shan twitched her head left to right, "We cannot accept either. The Eclipse is formally a criminal organization now by Council dictate, simply housing them would see our charter revoked... and the notion of one of us being a hostage is intolerable."

I grimaced, "Agreed on the latter, and for the former... shit, probably Night Whisperers then."

The notion of the Eclipse's assassins on Novgorod made both women wince, and it was Shyeel's turn to shake her head. "Hate to say it Cie, but I think we might need a favor from T'Ravt to get off station before Jona can net us."

"Maybe..." I exhaled, "Her or Cessa, neither has much love for Jona and are going the same direction we are. Nynsi? Soon as this is over chase down the Lady and see, if anyone asks you're negotiating something. We'll go after Cessa with the same excuse."

There was a quick nod, then we all turned to one side as abrupt silence rippled through the crowded lounge.

Aria, as usual, strode into the room like she intended to vaporize anyone stupid enough to get in her way. No one was, and by the time she reached the primary dancer's platform, now equipped with a series of holo-projectors and a lounge couch for her use, everyone was sitting and ready for her to explain what the fuck this summons had been about.

Once she was in place, her strong voice rang through the room without any enhancements, "Right, it's started. The Reapers are here."

My left hand twitched sharply, and several dozen assorted monsters all inhaled sharply at more or less the same time... but Aria continued before any screaming and shouting could begin.

"Admiral Del'Thran." She made an impatient motion, and an elderly looking Batarian male was quickly assisted to the stage by two of her bodyguards. He wore a dark Hegemony uniform, and had evidently been sitting quietly in a booth by himself before the summons.

He fiddled with a moment with his omni-tool before a rasping voice echoed in the Highborn tongue from hidden speakers, "It is the belief of Hegmon Balak that the beings known as the Reapers have begun covert assaults along our rimward colonies. Unfortunately... we have no actionable proof because there have been no survivors as of yet to interrogate."

The man seemed to glance at Aria, and she made an impatient moment for him to get on with it. He adjusted his omni-tool again, and various holo-projectors quickly began to display outsized maps of the Hegemony. It was far smaller than it had been a few years ago, before chunks had broken away into quasi-warlord kingdoms during its various civil wars, but it still retained its distinct shape. A densely packed core around Khar'shan, rubbing up against the System's Alliance, then a long strip of worlds dotted along the galactic rim where isolated colonies connected the nation to the Dark Rim, Traverse, and just beyond, the Terminus.

It was that last where a dozen red lights began to flash in slow rhythm.

"So far they have avoided the primary colonies and discharge sites along the Khar'shan to Omega trade lane." The Admiral resumed, "But someone has begun destroying FTL buoys along the route, and attacking isolated outposts off the main traffic route. Worse, several ships discharging have simply vanished with no alerts recorded or sent."

A Turian I didn't know raised his voice, "You're sure it's not the monkeys?"

Del'thran shook his head and creakily shifted his body to emphasize his belief. "No. They would have to move through the core worlds to reach those Relays, and their stealth ships have all been accounted for over the past month. The Hegemon and his advisers are of the belief that one of two events is occurring. Either a new, unknown species has begun attacking us for reasons unknown... or the Reapers are probing along the galactic rim."

I grimaced and raised my own voice, "Do you have anything to suggest that the Alliance or Volus are suffering similar attacks?"

The old man needed the question repeated by someone a bit closer, but he replied confidently enough, "The SIU combed the monkey's press reports on pirate raids. They have picked out two in the last month that we cannot correlate to known activity."

"Shit..." I muttered softly. "It's really happening."

Nynsi's lower eyes flicked at me, both of us tuning out the Hegemony officer as he went into a bit more detail about the fact that everyone present had been taken from the attacked locations. "You didn't believe that it would?"

"I was kind of hoping that this would be the one thing in my head that wasn't accurate." I admitted quietly. "So much for that."

She had far too much control to show much, but I knew her better than most, and I could see the tiny shifts as she fought down a wince. A hand rose to wordlessly grasp my forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze of reassurance as Aria began speaking once more.

"Based on the shit that the Geth and Sovereign got up to," Aria continued, "We can assume that they're gathering raw material for husks, indoctrinated agents, and getting as much intelligence as they can in the process. From this point on I want it fucking clear that indoctrination defense is to be prioritized. I find any of you skimping on that and your best subordinate will be getting a promotion."

The threat got a bit of a mixed reaction. Maybe half of the crowd took in a stride, but a lot of the rest bristled or rolled their eyes. A lot of that came from the Traverse crowd, who clearly didn't understand that Aria was... well, fucking _Aria._ Mere distance wouldn't save them if she decided they were incompetent allies.

"I believe," Nynsi murmured, "I now understand why Aria requested your personal presence as my guard today."

"Yeah..." I sighed in agreement. "Joy."

"At least we'll get paid." Shyeel tried to look on the bright side, though she didn't seem thrilled either. "Voya will be thrilled."

She would be, even if I and probably Shyeel would very much not be happy to go running around the Traverse and Terminus acting as Aria's personal justicars. Shit... well, at least the new squads would be getting real missions before the actual war started. I supposed was that a bright side of sorts.

Elsewhere, Aria had spent a few moments speaking to T'Ravt at the edge of the stage, and then returned to address the crowd at large. "As of today, all of you are to put your organizations on a war footing. I'm not expecting anything from those idiots on the Council, and based on what I know Thessia and the Salarians are more likely to side with these Leviathan creatures than with us."

To my right, Jona lifted her own voice. "Which means those cowardly whores are likely to try and pick a fight with us... like they're already trying to do."

It was hard to tell at this distance, but I didn't think Aria appreciated the interruption. That or she was reminded just whose fault it was that the Republics were itching for a fight over Illium. Either way she continued without much of a pause, "You will all receive orders from the most powerful actor in your region. You _will_ obey them. This is going to be a war of fucking _survival,_ I'm not going to waste my breath or my time pandering to the egos of mid-tier morons who think they know better than I do."

As before, most of the people present took the threats and the order calmly, but a minority bristled once more. It was less of a minority than before, either her tones or the fact that most of us weren't reacting working to make the others hesitate... but the Terminus was the Terminus. Unless you were Xenthan the notion of military adherence was largely a foreign one, or one couched in vague orders and directives rather than literal commands.

It was why in the old wars with the Council, in the great pirate incursions, the greater warlords usually did little besides pick a sector and tell the assembled pirate lords to go for it while their smaller but more professional forces lurked as a fleet in being somewhere near Omega. But... this wasn't going to be a typical war.

Like the Queen had said, this was for survival. I didn't doubt that most of the old faces who were missing had been the most independent of their kind, and that their replacements entirely owed their power and position to Aria, or perhaps Die Waffe or Ul Yesh.

The briefing didn't last much longer than that. Aria knew what kind of people she led as well or better than anyone, and rather than keep pushing she backed off to make it clear that we weren't about to sail off to the Hegemony to play hero. After a quick speech stating as much, and that their orders would be general and that everyone would retain operational freedom, she'd told everyone to read their instructions, _follow_ said instructions, and to enjoy free food and drink until they were ready to depart.

One of the Queen's Asari bodyguards had delivered a tablet to us, the others doing the same for everyone else, and we'd promptly put our heads together once more to read it. To my vague surprise it actually gave us the general idea as to what everyone else would be doing, even if the details weren't all there.

For the most part, the Terminus warlords were to begin slowly gathering at selected muster locations, were to begin stockpiling supplies, and were to cease any infighting among one another. The main locations would naturally be Omega and Cathia, though we all frowned a little to see Redcliffe on the list as well.

"Pacification." Shyeel shook her head eventually, "Thousands of pirates landing on world, bored, looking for a good time? Either the population will rise up and be good hosts, or their guests will start blowing holes in them."

I grunted in agreement, "Thus helping War-Front stabilize the place one way or another."

In comparison to their Terminus brethren, the Traverse warlords were given a bit of a longer leash. I assumed that was mostly because they didn't have the industry to sit idle for months on end without their people mutinying rather than any sign of weakness on Aria's part. More than a few rigidly irritated Batarians seemed to relax and become jovial when they go to their instructions. After all, it was obvious enough that there were several separatist Ha'diq from the Hegemony who had refused to show up when Aria had called.

Tirravan, Besaid, and the dozen or so lesser pirates who had come were instructed to... chastise them.

For the Terminus Greater Warlords, their situation was slightly different. Any major movements by them, especially Sederis, could provoke actual war with the Republics, but they couldn't exactly leave their forces scattered around either. Nor could they ignore the fact that the Quarians and Geth were _still_ having some kind of idiotic cold war in the Veil; that situation could blow up at any moment.

The final decision was that Aria and Ul Yesh would be gathering their fleets at Omega, while Die Waffe's Steel Fleet moved to the galactic north to put pressure on Rannoch and Haestrom to settle their shit sooner rather than later. The Golden Armada would be consolidating at several points within the Eclipse's territory, but not quite so consolidated as to threaten the Republics.

Sederis would be bolstered by most of the PMCs present. In terms of raw numbers it wouldn't be much, but they'd be far more professional as back-up than common pirate groups. The exceptions were War-Front, stuck at Redcliffe, and ourselves. It was, however, depressingly notable that the section regarding the Eclipse had clearly not been written by Aria. Jona had evidently informed her fellow Warlord as to what she would be doing... which wasn't a very good sign as to their working relationship.

Fucking complicated shit.

Nynsi exhaled as she reached our direct orders. "Not quite what we expected. We are to continue with our standard operational business to avoid provoking any Council reaction, but are also to prepare Novgorod for use as a staging ground by a portion of Cessa's fleet and at least one battlegroup from the Empire."

"Interesting." I murmured. "I think that's Aria and Yan wanting a more... trustworthy group ready to react if Besaid or Tirravan do something stupid."

"In all probability." Nynsi agreed, tapping a single finger on the text. "Ah, here it is. You, specifically, are to report to the Queen herself before we depart for specific orders for our commando assets."

Shyeel exhaled, "Nothing we didn't guess already. No details?"

Nynsi twitched her head in the negative. "No. Only that, should war break out, Massa and yourself are to subordinate yourselves to Lady T'Ravt, or if she is unavailable for any reason, to Cessa. She lists our most probable enemies as either the Reapers advancing into the Traverse from the Hegemony and Alliance, or as the Salarians if they are indeed Leviathan puppets like the Asari."

"That," I said, "Will be Ayle's business to worry about. Let's go see if Aria can get us out of here before Sederis does something, and see just who she wants us to kill."

The pair of them had no objections, and we quietly slipped out of our booth and made our way towards the Queen.

* * *

 **Silent Witness**

 _Voya'kean vas Xentha_

 **Date** : 06-03-2187

 **Location** : Silver Blade Compound, Xentha

* * *

" _We're aboard the Dark Tide, should be back on Xentha within a week, maybe two depending."_ Cieran said, " _The Lady wants to make a stopover at Antiva to show the flag and the goddess alone knows how long that'll take."_

I exhaled and crossed my arms, staring at the small image of my husband. "What about the targets?"

" _So far our orders are to stay put on Xentha and wait for Aria to pick out the appropriate examples."_ He replied, _"But given everything I wouldn't plan on staying there for very long. Lot of the Traverse warlords weren't thrilled at the idea of taking orders from Omega or Xentha."_

"Idiots."

Cie smirked a little, " _That was pretty much my thought. Depending on who we're after will probably determine how involved we're going to get. I think a lot of it is going to be us hanging back in support while the new blood put a few missions on their resumes."_

I made a displeased sound in my throat. "So long as we don't sit out all of them."

 _"Relax, I'm sure there'll be a few we'll need to be involved in."_

"Good. And the sooner you get back here the better. Lawson sent word that she'll be here soon and I'd rather not have to deal with her alone. Especially since I'd be the one stuck making sure no one does anything stupid to one of her ships or her people.

As usual he saw though my words without any problems, " _You mean you're getting tired of dealing with Illyan without Shyeel and I there to distract her, and you don't want to have to deal with Miranda on top of all of what you're dealing with already."_

"Yes." I hissed. "She's been bothering me about why we didn't pay off Lawson to fix her motion and sense of balance entirely when she's already on anti-regeneration meds."

" _I thought your,"_ The asshole made air-quotes around the next two words, " _Training Methods were going to rely on that as provocation. Hence the constant reminders that we'll be out fighting without her."_

"That," I informed him tersely, "Is working just fine. She's furious and dead set on proving us wrong by getting into some kind of shape, she's just bitching that we didn't make it easy for her."

Which we couldn't have done even if we'd wanted to. Well... I supposed we _could_ have, we had the money and allies such as Lawson who could have worked on it. The problem was mostly one of time.

Most Asari avoided cybernetics if at all possible because of their natural regeneration, something which also caused them to have high levels of rejection. It also didn't help that most Asari who'd suffered the amount of damage that Illyan had typically died from shock long before they could be saved, and it had only been the fact that she'd been a minute's walk from the _Normandy_ 's advanced medbay that had let the doctors stabilize her.

So for all of the Asari's advanced technology, cybernetics, particularly _brain_ cybernetics, weren't really a field they specialized in. As a result fixing her body with cybernetics and anti-regeneration drugs was simple enough, but fixing her brain was... something else. Something that would take time to research and develop or re-purpose tech, time that it didn't look like we'd have. And besides, I had a technological solution for that once the big idiot was in good enough shape to try it.

The problem... lay elsewhere.

For all that her size lent her an exotic appeal among most Asari, that didn't change the fact that her species was simply never intended to be that large. It hadn't really been a severe problem given her young age, but even so it had only been her regeneration that would let her large, heavy frame handle the strain and weight of her own body as she continued to age.

The same regeneration that was now crippled via drugs.

"The issue is not with her physical therapy, it is with the fact that she finally realized how much the repairs have cut into her life-span." I told him, "She'd accepted the fact that she wouldn't make it far beyond her Matriarchy before all of this, the fact that she'll be lucky to even hit five hundred now is proving to be something else."

The doctors had tried to soften that blow a little, technology ever advanced on, but people with Illyan's condition were usually treated in utero and there really wasn't much research done beyond that. There wasn't really a need... the condition was effectively extinct in the Republics, and Illyan and Erana were members of an extremely tiny handful beyond its borders.

The tiny image winced visibly. " _How's she taking it?"_

"Poorly."

He let out a ragged breath and rubbed at his face. " _What happened?"_

"She attempted to convince me to let her drink, and when I refused, she attempted to seduce me." I paused irritably. " _Badly._ Then she attempted to find a drink anyway and I had to recruit the little bitch and Ghai to drag her to bed, where she proceeded to sob into my hair until she fell asleep. It was exceedingly annoying."

" _That sounds about right."_ Cieran replied, " _Do you think that showing her the new armor might cheer her up?"_

I let out a contemplative little mewl, "I'm considering it. It's nowhere near ready without you around to tinker it with, it may just frustrate her further as an out of reach goal."

My husband sighed, " _If you think she can hold out until we get back we can do it then, all four of us as a kind of surprise. How is everything else? Are you able to handle sleeping in the same bed with her?"_

My chest heaved as I exhaled. "So far she hasn't tried to grope me, or do anything besides use me as a body pillow... which is annoying but I'm tolerating it."

There was a quiet chuckle, " _I'm honestly surprised."_

"Idiot male." I huffed, "I don't hate her, I just find her... aggravating."

" _You mean you're not sure if you find her attractive, you're really not sure if you want her in our bed, and you're still wildly jealous over the fact that she killed both Krom and his partner."_

I glared furiously at him and said nothing.

" _Oh, right, and the fact that she got an assist on Ganar."_ He added. " _And that-"_

A finger stabbed the disconnect button before her could truly get going, my head twitching from side to side to make my hair rustle furiously.

"Asshole." I hissed at the dead projector.

It didn't reply, leaving me free to turn and stomp out of the bedroom and into our old Lair once more. The place hadn't changed even after we'd relocated to Omega full time, evidently Ayle and later the Kithans had ordered it sealed up; not to be used by anyone but the old guard.

Erana was sitting on the common room's couch, and glanced up at me as I exited with a knowing smile on her face. "Dad being dad again?"

"Always." I muttered as I moved past her, "Where is your sister? I thought I left _that_ idiot out here."

"She wanted to get a head start on the day's list, Jack said she was bored and went with her to supervise."

I considered that as I retrieved a bottle of water. Jacqueline wouldn't be quite as hard on Illyan as I would be, but she wouldn't go easy on her either. Theoretically I could rely on her for at least one day's worth of supervision, freeing my time up for... actual work. The idea made my stomach churn a little, but... asshole of a male he may have been I didn't want Cieran coming back to find a mountain of datafiles and commandos who hadn't been properly keeping up with their own training.

Thankfully, if I'd learned anything from being around and then with Cieran for most of six years, it was how to solve problems.

"Erana..." I purred as I turned around, smirking as she immediately went rigid. "You look available."

"I'm not." She said at once, "I'm busy today. Extremely busy."

"Yes, you are." I agreed, "You have all of the paperwork that Ayle sent us to deal with."

The maiden winced. "...I thought that was for you and father only?"

"Since when has that ever stopped him from making other people do it?"

Erana groaned. "Never... yes ma'am, I'll get on it."

"Good." I turned away, "I'll be in the training yard running skirmish matches. I want to see if the new coats are worth anything."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note;**_

 _So instead of the usual small post-chapter section, I'm trying out inserting a secondary point of view for just a short, quick scene instead. Get more information out, answer more questions, expand on things while not going too far out into the wilds at the same time. Hopefully it works. This particular one reminds us that Voya is... well, a complicated person, and expands further on Illyan's numerous health problems._

 _The chapter itself obviously sets up just what the Blades and Warlords are up to, and should hint rather strongly that things aren't exactly going to go according to plan as this is not a professional military alliance we're dealing with. Next chapter will cover how things are going there, and have a quick peak-in to the Citadel to see how Shepard is doing._

 **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**

 _ **Thanks, Kat**_


	10. Operation: Long Echoes II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Long Echoes**

* * *

 **The Shepard**

 _Kaya Shepard_

 **Date** : 06-14-2187

 **Location** : Offices of the Human Councilor, Presidium, Citadel, Widow Nebula

* * *

Councilor Gunddarsen was becoming one of my least favorite people to deal with, though I'd grudgingly admit that the man wasn't really a downgrade from Udina.

Which wasn't saying much, since he sure as hell wasn't an improvement.

The old politician's replacement was far younger, looking to be in a vigorous middle age. He was handsome enough, I supposed, something he did his best to enhance by wearing nothing but the finest suits at all times. It was rare to see him without a cigarette, and sure as hell he had one going when I stepped into his office.

I'd pretty much expected the worst considering his background, and as a result I'd been surprised by was how much he seemed to consciously rein in any antagonism towards aliens. I'd expected far worse from a man heralded as Terra Firma's new meteor. I, and pretty much everyone I knew, had expected the usual Cerberus-style human supremacist rants.

Instead we'd... gotten an intellectual man who argued against the Council's authority on the argument that the organization was in dire need of reform rather than screaming about how Humanity needed to stand alone. His main point was that the Citadel was trying to simultaneously be an all-controlling galactic government as well as a loose confederation of allied states that were given large freedoms.

Naturally he favored the latter as the future, but he wasn't an idiot. Political ideals and a definite dislike for Turians had both been seemingly shoved aside in favor of a focus on the Reapers, Leviathans, and the pressing matter of survival. I'd have appreciated that a lot more if there wasn't something about him that still just rubbed me the wrong way. Something in the overly-familiar way he spoke or casually smiled, as though he was partaking in a joke only he knew the punch line to.

Or maybe I was just projecting because he'd been the one to yank me and Ash off of the investigation and pursuit of Kean and Lawson.

"Spectre Shepard." He greeted in his smooth voice, as always using my Council granted title rather than my Alliance ranking. "Were you successful in making contact?

"I was." I said, knowing my voice was flat but not really willing to do anything about it. "She didn't give me very much beyond what Sparatus already got from the SBC."

"Additional verification is always worthwhile." He chided. "In either case, now that we are all present, let us begin with the obvious. Admiral Anderson?"

I moved to one side of the office, still decorated in Udina's spartan style save for a luxurious wooden desk, taking a spot beside a silent Ash while Anderson rose from where he and Admiral Hackett had been seated. My old mentor moved to the front of the Councilor's desk, tapping a section of the wood paneling to reveal an extendable holo-emitter.

The map of the Traverse came up as expected, the countless uninhabited stars fading to mere gray orbs as the others were colored in based on allegiance and faction while tiny icons of ships came in to represent fleets. Lines appeared last, tracing outwards based on someone's best guess as to where everything was moving.

Six ship icons in particular became highlighted as Anderson began speaking.

"We now have six fleets that definitely originated from the Dark Rim taking up station in the Traverse." Anderson's voice was somber as he indicated the areas in question. "Three are blocking Relays 720, 723, and 724, isolating the Hegemony's rim colonies from the Traverse proper. Another has actually laid siege to a colony that declared independence from Khar'shan last year, with the fifth standing by in support."

The Councilor exhaled a plume of smoke at that. "Their progress?"

"Unknown." Anderson answered. "News out of that region is minimal during the best of times, and it is not on the AIS or STG's priority list."

When the public face of humanity merely nodded and waved for him to continue, the briefing moved on. "Her last fleet has put in at Novgorod, placing them in good position to support any of the three blockading fleets though out of position in regards to the far Rim."

Yellow icons blinked as he spoke, indicating each of the various task forces. Knowledge on their exact composition was somewhat sketchy, relying mostly on long range sensor data, but for the most part the enigmatic warlord's fleet seemed to be an eclectic mix of very old Asari ships, a rash of Batarian vessels, and then, strangely, a good number of ships matching ancient Krogan designs.

That was interesting, but we didn't talk about Cessa for very long... not when her far more infamous neighbors were also in motion.

"Within the Terminus itself, the primary movers have begun to consolidate their forces." Anderson walked as he spoke, circling the floating swathe of the galaxy and indicating the various areas. "Primarily around Omega, but fleets have also moved towards the Perseus Veil, and the Eclipse appears to be arranging battle-groups at every relay leading towards the Republics while also arranging their main fleets above Ilium and Cathia."

"Thus enraging Thessia." Gunddarsen stated, the fingers of his left hand drumming on his armrest. "And serving no real purpose given their claims that the Reapers have begun probing at the Hegemony, and that all of this is their movement to isolate that crippled nation."

Recognizing that it was my time, I sighed and took a half-step forwards. "According to Lawson and Kean, Aria and Sederis are still convinced that the Republics have either been partially or entirely taken over by the Leviathans. The official word is that they don't know what action they'll take against the Reapers but they're not betting on it being actually helpful, and they're mobilizing fleets as a precaution against any attack on that flank."

Admiral Hackett shook his head. "So they elect to provoke Thessia and turn public opinion against them?"

I could only shrug. "You have no idea how paranoid those people are, sir. If they think there's even the slimmest chance that Matriarch T'Ravt's cabal actually controls the Republics they're going to act like they do."

Gunddarsen took another drag of his cigarette and shook his head, "There are at least three normally pacifistic Asari news casts already calling for mobilization in response, though the number of war-hawks remains low."

"It won't." I promised him, "If I had to put money on it, Sederis at the very least _wants_ a fight with Thessia, the sooner the better. The official reports coming out from her are just placating words to try and make her seem more benign than she is."

The Councilor's eye narrowed. "Explain."

"You've got to understand their mindset." I said. "The people at the top level aren't stupid. They're violent, paranoid, criminal barbarians... but they're not stupid. They know their only real chance to fight the Council on even terms came and went when Patriarch killed Queen-Matriarch T'Kun several centuries ago, and that only the Asari and Salarian desire to avoid massive casualties has kept the Council from moving against them."

"That," Hackett interjected, "And a desire to maintain a dumping ground for their cultural undesirables."

I waved an accepting hand, "Yes sir, but they don't need the entire Terminus for that, and you can't tell me that the old Council wouldn't have loved to cut them down to size and at least break up a few of the kingdoms that formed out there."

The Admiral nodded in acceptance, and I continued, "Sederis especially knows that the Republics want her dead and at least a good portion of their separatist republic back. I'm pretty sure she _is_ also convinced about the Leviathan cabal running the place... so for her a war is a win-win. It deals with her long and short term problems and she's gambling that we'll have to side with _her_ instead of with Thessia thanks to the Leviathan angle."

Which would turn an otherwise hopeless or stalemated conflict into one that the crazy warlord thought was actually winnable.

Ash rubbed at her forehead, "So instead of just fighting the Reapers, and figuring out what the Leviathans are up to later, she wants to deal with all of it in one go. Nevermind that breaking up the Council and starting a multi-front war is going to make dealing with the Reapers harder, if not outright impossible."

I could only shrug. "That's my best guess based on what I learned when I was out there. I doubt she'll make the first move in terms of shooting, but I wouldn't be surprised if she makes even more provocative actions over the next couple of months."

Gunddarsen puffed rapidly on his shrinking cigarette, "Without direct evidence of these Leviathans, I doubt we'll be able to do much of anything. I take it she and her kind presume we have far more power over our governments than we actually do?"

I snorted, "I don't think they understand democracy very well, or particularly want to."

Hackett sighed and spoke once more, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but our best option may be to ignore that entire region and let them fight it out while we focus on the major threat."

"That is assuming," The Councilor replied, "That Hegemon Balak is correct and the Reapers are active and that the warlords are correct and the Leviathans have subsumed the Republics to a significant degree."

"Assuming that." The Admiral agreed, "In either case I believe that we have more local problems."

Everyone but the Councilor winced or grimaced at the reminder, and then turned back to the holographic map when Gunddarsen motioned for the briefing to resume.

"We can confirm that the Xenthans are mobilizing back up to war time levels." Anderson waved at the oblong shape of the Empire, nestled along the border of the Traverse. "Fleets have moved to blockade every Relay connecting the Terminus to the Traverse, excepting those leading to the clusters that Cessa has moved into."

Gunddarsen waved a dismissive hand, "Side details, Anderson. Do we have confirmation that a dreadnought is at Novgorod?"

My old mentor took a deep breath, then nodded once. "The _Java Sea_ made a stealth through the system this morning. They confirmed the _Blood Tide_ is in high orbit, along with nine cruisers of various make, twenty escorts, and nearly as many support ships."

"The Empress has to be as mad as Sederis." Ash spoke up as she shook her head. "Everyone knows that's a redline for war, by either side. What's the official word from Xentha?"

I sighed, "That they're only there to protect and reinforce their investments in the SBC given the chaos in the Traverse. I don't know if T'Ravt honestly expects anyone to buy that but she's repeating it as often as she can, along with extra hints that she still wants to be recognized officially by more than just the Elcor and Quarians."

"Unlikely." Gunddarsen discarded the remains of his vice into an ash tray and began working on pulling another out. "Especially not with a dreadnought three Relays beyond the borders of her nation and Sederis provoking everyone. I can already hear Valern howling that the Citadel and Hierarchy fleets must be deployed at once."

The implied notion that the Salarians would want war but want to actually participate was more than a little racist... yet knowing what I knew of Council politics, also probably not that far off from the truth. Which was damnably depressing on any number of levels.

"We will return to T'Ravt in a moment. What of the Hegemony itself?" He asked. "Are the splinter factions uniting?"

Admiral Hackett let out a deep snort, "If anything, the opposite. According to an STG brief I received yesterday, there was a grand summons to Omega some two weeks ago, right before all of this began. Tirravan and Besaid both attended, along with three others of lesser stature, but Kilika and nearly a dozen of the break-away Highborn refused to go."

"They've already begun fighting." Anderson added, "The local groups are calling Aria and Balak's declaration of Reaper activity to be nothing more than a pathetic hoax aimed at forcing them to kneel. They intend to fight back as sharply as they can."

Gunddarsen closed his dark blue eyes, looking tired for a brief moment before he regathered himself. "Which means the Reapers will have fertile ground with which to work if they are not dealt with quickly."

"The pirates are trying." Anderson said, his voice grudging. "Most of the Traverse bands have begun to migrate that way, following the lead of the bigger fish. Our estimates are that the majority are joining up with Tirravan's faction, and Hegemon Balak is rallying what's left of the core fleets to attack from the other direction. Still... I'm not hopeful they'll stamp that out before the Reapers make their move."

"Neither are the Warlords." I said, "According to Lawson, that's what the blockade is actually for. Stopping any traffic out of the Hegemony and into the Terminus so that indoctrinated have a hard time causing problems."

Hackett rubbed at his chin, "It's not a bad play, but it's not a winning one either. And why deploy an Xenthan dreadnought at all? They have to know that one such ship can't do much to a Reaper. Especially not a _Stormwind_ class, they're not designed for the kind of slugging match."

I could only shake my head, "Lawson had no idea, and Kean cut our conversation short before I could ask. If I had to guess... I don't think T'Ravt or Aria is all that confident that the Traverse warlords will follow orders long-term. Sticking a dreadnought right in their backyard would definitely work as motivation."

For a while anyway.

"They're gambling." I continued with a tired sigh, "The Warlords I mean. If the Hegemon is bullshitting them and the Reapers aren't here, they're going to lose a massive amount of face and support... and they're going to be on a time limit. Even the most loyal of the smaller pirate bands can't sit idle forever."

Ash caught on at once, "Meaning if the Reapers have any working knowledge of the galaxy, and we have to assume they do... they're going to pull back and wait for that alliance to fall apart."

Admiral Hackett frowned, "You believe the Reapers will be so threatened by pirates that they would delay their attack simply to break them apart?"

"I believe," Gunddarsen said, "That there are several thousand dead Reapers still strewn across Ilos and its solar system. We have no real knowledge of how many of them are still active and how cautious or bold they might be. What do you believe would happen if they did delay?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Anderson shook his head, "It will be as Shepard said, the Terminus will simply change targets and provoke the Republics into open war. That will let them remain somewhat unified and allow them to deal with these Leviathan creatures, assuming they are located within the Republics at all."

The Councilor looked as though he was about to reply when the still floating map winked out and a flashing icon for an incoming message replaced it. He gave it a somewhat sour look and tapped another area on his desk before speaking to someone, "Yes? Of course, I am being briefed on the matter as we speak. ...I see, yes, I can be at the Chambers at the top of the hour."

"Council meeting?" Anderson guessed.

"Yes." Gunddarsen replied, speaking around lighting his new cigarette. "I'm afraid we're going to have to call this here. Anderson, dispatch one of your aides to the Citadel Fleet under my aegis and get any information on potential deployments. Admiral Hackett, please continue to prepare potential deployments to the Traverse."

When the two men nodded, he went on, "Spectre Williams. Have you made any progress on the death of Admiral Mannfeld?"

"Some." Ash replied, "It was definitely intended to look like a suicide, but we managed to turn up a few things that make it clear it wasn't. No leads on who could have gotten onto and off of Arcturus though."

Gunddarsen exhaled smoke and nodded, "Continue focusing on that for now. The man was a short sighted fool due to be replaced, but we can hardly allow the commander of the AIS to die without dealing with whoever was responsible. Shepard, what your own investigation?"

I crossed my arms, "It's hard to investigate a Councilor, especially one who's basically living on the _Destiny Ascension."_

He gave me a less than impressed look, "What do you have?"

Forcing down my simmering anger, I spoke as calmly as I could. "There's a no-confidence vote scheduled on Thessia next week, but she's expected to pass in the lower Assembly despite the Matriarchs wanting her gone. She's getting plenty of expensive wine sent to her through back-channels, along with medication that's definitely intended to counter long term alcoholic effects in Asari. I'm also fairly certain she's refused at least two directives to return to Thessia for consultations."

Gunddarsen slowly pulled his cigarette away from his mouth, staring at its smoldering end. "She is aware of something... if Sederis is not merely a paranoid lunatic, and these Leviathans are influencing Asari politics, that may explain her actions. Continue your work, Spectre."

"I still think one of the Turian Spectres would be better at this." I countered, "For both jobs. Ash and I are soldiers, not investigators."

"You are Spectres." He replied smoothly, that telling smirk appearing once more, "And the principal role of a Spectre is as an investigator who does not suffer from any restrictions. Further... you are two of a very small number of Spectres who we can trust implicitly. The sooner you resolve these investigations the sooner we may have critical information on who are enemies are, and how far their reach extends."

I had to choke down another argument, knowing it wouldn't get me anywhere. I'd already tried to protest to Sparatus and been told, bluntly, that Gunddarsen wasn't wrong. He'd also reminded me rather sharply that while he could understand my personal loss, in the grand scheme of things the actions of a mercenary company in the Deep Traverse and the death of a handful of Corsairs was not a Council priority.

There were already too many jobs for Spectres and not enough of us to go around, especially not enough of us that weren't possibly compromised in one way or another.

" _Your AIS and the STG will continue that investigation and locate the missing ship."_ He'd told me, " _Remember Shepard, you received your title to defend the galactic peace and the Council's rule. We did not give it to you so that you could run around pursuing personal vendettas... and don't bring up Ilos. We both know this is an entirely different situation."_

"Yes, Councilor." I forced the words out, knowing that both he and Sparatus were right, and unable to stop myself from hating it. "I'll get back to you when I have more information."

* * *

 **Silent Witness**

 _Voya'kean vas Xentha_

Date: 06-20-2187

Location: Silver Blade Compound, Xentha

* * *

My idiot male of a partner was once again worrying me, and I did not appreciate the emotions he was causing. It was entirely ruining the entertaining, potentially even arousing, sight of him pummeling challengers in close combat.

"How many does that make?" Shyeel asked as she dropped onto the chair beside mine, the pair of us among the many watching the sparring ring where Cieran was currently resolving a few leadership questions.

"Nine." I replied as one of the maiden Nightblades sheepishly picked up her training sword from the dirt and gave her Commander a quick Batarian-style bow before retreating. "He's made his point in the first few, he's just venting frustration right now."

The Asari let out a quiet grunt as a Batarian made his way down, gauntlets flickering to low-powered life as he did. "It's not just his usual complaining this time, is it? He's really sick of this whole responsibility thing."

"He's very sick of it." I shook my head and leaned back, "Whatever dregs of Batarian nature I haven't beaten out of him are the only things keeping him here, and these _keshin_ acting like immature pirates instead of soldiers did not help matters."

Not that we hadn't expected there to be a few issues with him returning to command after several months away, months where a great many recruits had to be brought in and trained up by Ayle's people while the little bitch focused on our new cadre of assassins. Still, we'd all been rather surprised at how quickly the displeased rumbles had started as the new Lancers began adjusting to his delegation heavy, laid back command style.

The various long-term veterans had done their best to assist, but it had been an uphill struggle. Aria's orders to relocate from an increasingly comfortable Novgorod back to the militant, and now mostly empty, base on Xentha had not helped matters in the slightest... especially because Cieran didn't really want to be here either and had been slow to react to the problems as a result.

He'd expected more issues from the Nightblades, and been mildly surprised to find most of them practically giddy in their support once they'd realized he and the little bitch were practically the same person. That had been our biggest clue to the real problem; the Silver Blades, as much of a united front as we generally put up, still had a lot of lingering after-effects from our regional origins... and where all of the Nightblades were either from Ilium or Omega, all of the new Lancers were from Xentha or Khar'shan.

To say they were having problems shifting from the kind of stoic Turian-Batarian military crap that Ayle and Shaaryak had drummed into them to Cieran and Trena's Ilium by way of Omega dismissive laziness was understating things.

Cieran's patience had broken last week when we _still_ hadn't gotten a mission to take everyone on to force some cohesion into place. Much as he once had on Omega, he'd gone full-Warlord mode and re-instituted a lot of the Omega branch's traditions. The primary one was a viciously relentless training pattern of squad on squad combat, pitting the teams against each other... and against us.

We were still down Illyan, but he'd dragged Ghai and the little bitch into our group, and despite how long it had been since we'd really fought together the five of us had flattened any and all challengers... usually assisted by the fact that we prepared the training zones far in advance. Only Mirala's team one really gave us a good fight; the Ardat'yakshi doing a better job than Deshi and Jacqueline of pounding teamwork into her new squadmates.

That had quieted most of the muttering, but the internal culture remained divided and a bit awkward. Cieran's mood hadn't improved very much as a result, if anything he'd gotten even more irritated as the days had gone by and he had to keep dealing with the uptight attitudes. He'd eventually gotten to the point where he'd taken over the little bitch's morning close combat sessions to vent some of his emotion through violence.

"I remember," Shyeel said as we both watched him ruthlessly go through his latest opponent, "When he'd work through his emotions by fucking Illyan and Joa senseless, or getting drunk out of his mind."

"Is that a comment on how I'm affecting him, or a comment on the fact that I'm not letting Illyan have sex with us?" I asked darkly.

The latter was a rather touchy subject at the moment. Illyan was... and I couldn't believe it at times, more focused on seducing _me_ than simply trying to convince me to let her sleep with my husband again. Which was good in the sense that I didn't have to kill her, but irritating in the sense that Illyan and I had a very... _complicated_ relationship that wasn't improving by living in tight proximity.

A blue hand rolled, "More I'm surprised he's doing this instead of dragging you to bed. Sex life still quiet?"

I let out a low mewl of displeasure, "I still do not care to discuss that with you... but no, it is as active as it has ever been."

Shyeel glanced at me with her lips pursed, "So not very. I thought you worked through your issues when we were all in the District."

"Just because I no longer have a panic attack at the notion of it does not mean that I am always in the mood." I countered. "I am not an Asari maiden who only thinks with her azure."

"I was just asking." She shrugged a wordless apology. "Not used to seeing him like this and was trying to pick out reasons for it beyond the obvious idiots down there challenging him."

I felt a muscle in my jaw twitch as I exhaled sharply. "He... is tired and frustrated with the situation in general."

"The vacation being cut short still, or the whole thing with Illyan?" She asked.

"The vacation being cut short, the issues with Illyan, the thing with the Butcher," I ticked them off one at a time, "having to call Shepard and deal with that bitch, being stuck as the middle-man between Ayle and Lawson, the fish you just referenced... and most of all; the fact that he just doesn't want to do this anymore."

Shyeel winced as we watched Cieran deflect a feint, dodge the main punch, and retaliate with a series of vicious body blows. "...I was wondering when that would happen. He was never really comfortable with the whole command and power thing."

"That," I said flatly, "Is understating things."

Aside from the day we'd officially bonded, and perhaps the first time I'd let him claim me, I was fairly certain that the day he'd transferred the Directorship to Ayle ranked among the best days of his life these past few years.

"He still has some notion of responsibility for the corporation, but he largely trusts that Ayle can handle things to his liking, and that Joa will act as a brake on her more wild ambitions." I continued, "Which was all the _keshin_ ever really wanted... and now that he's sure it's all being run well he wants to be done with it more than anything."

Our friend exhaled, "It's that bad?"

"It was the vacation." I muttered. "It reminded him of what things used to be like and how much he missed not having to bother with this warlord style crap. Of what it was like when just the four of us were running around, or maybe even the times when the Blades were just another commando team."

Shyeel shook her head as she picked up on the rest. "And since we aren't on Omega with Aria holding a gun to our heads, he's... well, like you said. He's having a hard time figuring out why it's worth dealing with all of this. Fuck that sucks... I'm guessing the impending war is the only reason we're sticking around then?"

"More or less." Another shrug punctuated my words. "That and he still has some desire to personally see the Matriarch killed."

"Ugh." She made a disgusted sound, " _That_ bitch. I'd done my best to forget about her once he got his head fixed."

I grimaced, feeling my tongue flick over my lips. "It's not _fixed_ , it's... just patched together enough that it's not killing him anymore. Ghai _thinks_ she can hold him together for something like his full lifespan thanks to the greybox and what Aria got us, but she won't swear to that."

"...meaning we still have to find that old bitch and whatever research she has." Shyeel finished. "Athame's ass, that's not going to be a fun campaign."

"Probably not." I agreed darkly, the memory of an unending scream making me shudder and be thankful for the bright sun overhead. "And it's not one he thinks we can run off and do on our own. I think he plans to convince Lawson to work with us, and to take both of the stealth ships into the Republics to hunt her once the war starts."

There was a long hum in reply to that, both of us watching as the farce below ended; Cieran finally looked tired enough to call it a day. "I guess that explains why he's doing all of this personally instead of just leaving it to Trena. We'll need the backup if we're hunting those... _things_ again. Goddess... we're going to be up against more than one this time, aren't we?"

My fingers twitched as I exhaled. "Yes. Yes we will."

Shyeel's own breathing hitched for just a moment as she seemed to find a memory of her own, and she quickly shook herself and rushed to move on. "Yeah, well, guess we'll deal with those waves when they reach us. You think going and killing a few idiot pirates might help? Aria's got to have work for us soon."

"...yes, that should help." I said as I shook myself, disguising my discomfort and the effort of repressing unwanted memories in a few simple arm stretches. "Once we aren't stuck sitting here listening to complaints things should improve a great deal."

"Hope so. Cie's... well, no offense, but Cie's not as bloodthirsty as you are. Not sure missions will really help him calm down."

"I don't intend to actually let him fight." I shrugged as I stood up, watching as the crowd dispersed and the male in question began to head our way. "He'll do something stupid if he tries when he's in this kind of mood."

"I thought you got all hot and bothered when he does stupid things like personally fight Krogan Warlords."

 _That_ memory was at least a pleasant one, and I smirked a little as I recalled the idiotic expression on the giant alien's face when Cieran's pistol had found his throat. "He is exceedingly attractive in those situations... but he doesn't have a giant idiot who will throw herself into gunfire for him at the moment."

Shyeel groaned. "Voya... tell me you're not supporting Illyan just so you can use her infatuation with your bond-mate like that."

"I don't have to use her." I pointed out reasonably, "The idiot would do it either way. She still considers herself his personal bodyguard after all."

"Athame's ass..."

The curse came just as Cieran arrived, his pale skin covered in a light sweat as he tiredly tried to tie his long mane back. "Hey Shyeel. My wife causing problems again?"

I hissed at the accusation even as the Asari laughed, "Just the usual plots to get Illyan shot a few more times."

"Oh, so nothing unusual then." He said as he reached our level, reaching out to hug me. "How was your morning?"

I tolerated the contact, my anger unable to stop my instinct to rise up enough to rub my left cheek through the groomed hair around his mouth. "Pleasant until an idiot male decided to throw a temper tantrum."

He sighed as he continued to hold me, "It wasn't a temper tantrum, it was Trena's recommendation to make sure the muttering stopped."

"It was a temper tantrum over Cheyl running his mouth yesterday." I growled as I dropped back down to my heels. "Stop deflecting."

"It wasn't and I'm no-" His voice broke off as I reached behind his neck and grabbed the tied off hair, a single sharp tug enough of a threat to make him stop. "...what do you want for lunch?"

Shyeel cackled as I nodded in approval. "Steak with that fish you made last week."

"Yes dear."

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes**_

 _Sorry for the delay, this chapter went through a lot of iterations and about 5k wasted words as I fought with who I should use for the points of view. I like where it ended up just took longer than I'd have liked. In either case, things continue to progress both personally and politically. Next chapter will see the old crew off of Xentha and dealing with their first crisis and investigations._

 _Goal is still to have this story done by the end of December at the very latest, still on pace for a sixteen chapter story._

 **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**

 _ **Thanks, Kat**_


	11. Operation: Long Echoes III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Long Echoes**

* * *

 **Pirate's Life**

 _Joa T'Voth_

 **Date** : 07-08-2187

 **Location** _: SBS Reliant_ , orbiting Thulodon, Outer Novgorod System

* * *

My fucking headache would just not go away... kind of like the goddess damned bitch causing it.

Three years ago it had seemed like an obvious thing to do given the circumstances I'd been in. Join the mercenaries who'd saved me and my most of my crew's collective asses from being killed, raped, or eaten by that crazy asshole of a Krogan and avoid losing my ship to Aria, die Waffe, or Sederis. They'd seemed clever and ruthless enough to survive the war, and had seemed to be good company on top of that.

I mean, sure, they were a little soft in refusing to engage in honest piracy, but I could overlook that given their other strong points. And Cieran and Illyan's idea to create a mini-Illium on Omega had been fucking genius.

I'd even kind of enjoyed being made a pseudo-Admiral and being given a little fleet to run around with. The paperwork had been awful and I'd wanted to drown myself after having to deal with countless training cruises and refits, but still... I'd basically owned a goddess-damned _fleet._ I'd never even fucking imagined that I'd get anywhere like that when I'd fled Thessia.

Then there'd been the war against Cerberus.

Then there'd been all the crap with the Collectors.

Then Cieran had finally turned over command to Massa.

I was rubbing at my temples when there was a knock on my cabin door. Spending a few moments glowering at it, I stabbed at my omni-tool right before I was sure my guest would have hacked through it to enter with or without my permission.

"Joa." Cieran greeted me as he walked in, strangely not in the armor I was used to seeing. Instead he just wore a plain Blade uniform with his coat draped over his shoulders, though the exasperated look he gave my bare chest was far more familiar. "Goddess, would you at least put a bra on or something?"

"Nothing you haven't seen, groped, sucked on, and bitten before." I retaliated, making no effort to cover myself as I leaned back in my couch. "If your new bondmate doesn't like that we fucked before you two got together that's not my bloody problem."

One of the ridges of fur above his eyes rose as he closed the door behind him, "You're in a shitty mood."

I glowered at him, though that faded as he pulled a small bottle out of his armored coat. "...that what I think it is?"

"Probably. You going to cover your tits or what?"

Making a disgusted sound, I got up as he wandered over to the tiny mini-bar sequestered near my bed to get us glasses. Not wanting to bother with a shirt, I grabbed one of the many bands with my rank sewn over of the left cup. Tugging it on and getting it straight, I returned to the couch just in time to accept a glass of dark liquid.

The contrasting bitter then sugary sweet flavor of fine Illium Rum made me groan in pleasure, sinking back into my seat as Cieran dropped into the small armchair nearby.

"Business first?" He asked as he sipped from his own glass. "Figure we'll get that out of the way while we still have rum."

"...yeah, sure." I sighed, very much wishing we'd gone through the bottle before we started. "The _Gallipoli_ isn't ready, and she's not going to be ready for at least another month. You're going to be stuck with Lawson and her ship."

Cieran exhaled but didn't look surprised. "More work than we thought?"

I rolled a bare shoulder in a shrug, "Since we have to do this secretly we can't use our only real space dock and had to land the thing on the iceball instead... and even if we _could_ have put her in at Novgorod there's the small problem that the ship is way beyond what our engineers have ever worked with before. Lawson's people and those AI are doing all the real work while our techs are scrambling to learn what they can."

The human frowned, "I thought there was just some minor armor damage, nothing we couldn't handle."

"That's what we thought too." I grimaced and took a fortifying sip of the hilariously expensive rum. "Then we realized the fucking thing was still on its trial run when you stole it. The war room thing was a fucking mess that wasn't really functional, the port-side GARDIAN looked like a black tide had fucking washed it on shore before they installed it, and the number four engine mount needed some heavy reinforcement."

That made him grimace in turn. "Athame's ass... it was a rushed build, wasn't it?"

"Probably." I shrugged once more. "Doesn't help that we don't exactly have spec parts for the fucking thing. Lawson already went through all the crap she grabbed when Cerberus fell fixing her ship after the Collector base. With that AI's help we're splicing in Xenthan made parts wherever we can but..."

He sighed as I made a helpless gesture. "I get it, I get it. It'll be a little harder to work with just one insertion vessel, we're probably going to need a base ship to operate from. It was cramped as fuck getting everyone from Xentha to here just on the _Normandy._ Who can you spare?"

"I can spare me."

"Joa... you're the Exec Com of the fleet." Cie shook his head, dark fur shifting around as he did. "We're going to be on this for at least six weeks, maybe longer."

I took another pull from my drink and nodded, "Yeah, you're right. I better bring the whole battlegroup so we can do exercises."

Flat green eyes narrowed for several seconds as he chased that particular current, the wave reaching the beach when he let out a quiet grunt. "Is Ayle that bad?"

"I didn't flee from my home, claw and scrape and fuck my way through a century's worth of enemies to have my own cruiser, and then join up with you just so that I could become a glorified guard dog." I growled. "Nor did I join you out of some Batarian driven ideal to create a new Xentha or Hegemony out here."

His slim body shifted as he breathed deeply, taking a long sip of his rum. "You didn't join up to fight a war against Cerberus either."

I scoffed. "No, but I tolerated that storm because you and I had a bloody relationship that worked. You told me what you wanted done, I told you to fuck off while I went off and did it, and you never bitched about how much it costs to refit everything."

There was a quiet sigh, though he didn't look terribly surprised that I was having problems with his old friend's management style. "Novgorod still isn't paying for itself then?"

"It's not Omega." I pointed out. "Supposedly we're ahead of Ven's schedule thanks to Shaaryak doing some advertising thing that's worked out, but we're still just barely in the blue and don't have much left in the way of cash reserves after getting everything set up. If we had another six months or year we could be at something like the old levels, but we just don't have the fucking time."

One of his fingers tapped rapidly on the side of his glass as his expression went distant, his usual flat disregard for anything that didn't affect him or his small personal clique fading as he considered the problem. "I thought the fleet was in good shape, how many ships still need to be refit?"

"Close to half."

He nearly choked as he went to drink more rum. " _What?"_

I grimaced. "Six of my eight line cruisers are in good shape. All four of the _Kima Lier_ 's that we bought from the lady last year are standardized, and we matched the _Reliant_ and _Chitose_ to their gear when we rebuilt them after the battle. But the _Blood Drinker_ is in pretty rough shape, her systems are patch-worked from here to the fucking deeps, and the _Headsman_ needs a new overhaul since most of her equipment is Eclipse spec shit that we can't afford to maintain long term now that Sederis isn't a sponsor."

Cieran listened as he finished off his glass, then went to refill mine as I continued to lay out the situation for him; each smaller class of ship providing more problems compared to our main battle line.

Of our eight light cruisers, only the totally rebuilt _Cusho_ and the three salvaged Cerberus ships used anything like standardized parts that we could secure from Omega and Xentha. The other four were a hopeless mixed up mess of Asari, Human, Hegemony, and Xenthan built systems. The _Shokari_ was probably in the best shape thanks to her post-Ganar's War rebuild, but like the _Headsman_ most of that was Asari built gear that I doubted the Eclipse would sell to us at minimal profit margins anymore.

The mixed escorts were... well, not great. We'd lost a good portion of the ships we'd been granted as salvage by Aria after the first war against Cerberus, and while we'd managed to replace them, we'd mostly replaced them with a variety of small-time but sensible pirates looking to follow my lead in regards to steady paychecks and calmer lives, or with the wave of Hegemony defectors that had come before and then along with Shaaryak.

Neither category had been the best about maintaining their ships for a variety of reasons, some understandable, some idiotic, but either way it left us with problems. Said problems were exacerbated among the light ships by the various attacks smaller pirate groups had thrown at the intruders to 'their' backwater part of the Traverse. We hadn't actually _lost_ any ships drowning the idiots and proving to the rest that we were best left alone, but we'd still taken damage to more than a few frigates and corvettes.

Damage that I was struggling to find time to repair thanks to Massa's idiotic and over-done commitments... and of course most of the damage was to our corvettes. The little things were of questionable value in a big brawl but they were damned useful at lurking at common discharge sites. But since most of them were too badly battered to do much but try and look threatening around Novgorod I was stuck wasting bigger, more valuable ships doing that job.

"On the vid-screen, I've got sixty-four warships for us to fight with." I told him, leaving out the countless personnel issues I was also dealing with. "In reality, I'd only want to bring about thirty into a fight. If you held a gun to my head I could drag another eighteen in but the goddess alone knows how we would repair them if anything went wrong, half of them have weapons that are either in poor repair or are missing entirely, and I'm not sure the rest of the ships could even _reach_ the battlespace."

He pursed his lips as he put back more rum. "Are the critical ships at least slated for refit as soon as we have the cash?"

I snorted. "No. They're all in low orbit at the various colonies pretending to be operational so that our good ships can escort our oh-so-fucking-critical merchant ships on their cargo runs."

A muscle in his cheek twitched once, which nearly made me smirk. The human had a lot of faults as a leader, he had all of the ambition of a stone on a beach, but he knew that some things had to be prioritized regardless of how irritating or painful it might have made those cut off from funds as a result. From the moment Aria had given us ships taken from Ganar's old fleet he'd put my ships on a pedestal. _We_ had been the premier part of the Omega branch, the ones who got the largest budget, the most attention, and the most independence.

In comparison, Massa was far more concerned about political appearances, balancing her budget, and taking care of her precious ground troops. It was one of the main differences between the two, something I'd only started to pick up after she'd taken over.

On the surface, there wasn't much difference between Cieran and Massa besides his lack of ambition. They both shared a kind of relentless determination and focus that could be exceedingly attractive and magnetic when seen in the right water. Both were almost hyper-territorial when it came to what they considered 'theirs', and viciously defended whoever they thought of as their people.

But where Cieran had hide as thick as a Krogan's, and literally gave zero fucks to what anyone else thought of him, Massa was viciously sensitive to criticism that didn't originate from her 'social equals'... and even then she could be prickly.

"We're technically fulfilling our contractual obligations." I informed him, more than a little gleeful as I stoked his own anger against the uptight bitch. "But not much more than that. I think she's entirely focused on the long sail ahead and isn't focused enough on what's going on in the shallows around her... fuck, the last time I tried to argue with her about this she quoted religious lines about _being_ powerful so long as you _appeared_ to be powerful."

Though honestly the fact that Batarians had religious justifications for _bluffing_ was something I still found to be hilarious in a pathetic kind of way.

"How is the merchant marine?" He asked.

I hesitated, then sighed. "It's in better shape than our warships, mostly, and it _is_ profitable... but we're stuck in a fucking whirlpool we can't get out of. So long as it's running, we're making money but we're also occupying my best ships protecting them at drop offs, discharge sites, and relays. We only beat back the locals, we didn't obliterate them, and not many ran off to join the fun by the Hegemony. All of that means I can't spare those ships to handle our protection contracts to free up the ships that need a refit."

"And if we stop the shipping we won't have the income to pay for refitting those ships." Cieran's lips twisted as he took a harsh pull from his glass. "Why didn't you pursue and flatten them? Is disproportionate retribution not our standing policy anymore?"

I grimaced. "That was something like a screaming match between me and Massa, but... Athame's ass, I at least get her reasoning. We'd have to stop either the trade routes or pull ships from the defensive contracts to launch the attacks, and even if we did make it work we'd be gambling that the amount of damage we'd take would be minimal and that the rest of them would be scared enough to steer clear of us."

Neither one of which was anything like a guarantee... but _not_ doing it had left us in this mess so I'd felt the risk justified.

Massa had disagreed.

"And you want to drag the first battlegroup away from Novgorod?"

"I want to force Massa to take a loan from the Lady to get your frigid whore of a mother to protect some of our convoys so that I can get the critical ships refit before the war starts." I told him, "Or take a big fucking loan and stop the convoys so I can refit damn near everything. She's refused both times I tried to bring it up, wants to wait until the next contract extensions for our ground troops, and wants to try and get the Lady to hire the new regiments she's raised."

Cieran shook his head, "She won't, not since she just put her Empire on a war footing again. Since we're already protecting the most profitable colonies in the area I doubt we'll get many new contracts either... damn it. We expanded beyond what we could afford."

"Massa and Shaaryak did." I corrected him, "Their fucking politics again. They're not exactly charging the Batarian colonies out near the Rim the same as they're charging New Canton and Nagato, and they're wasting entire regiments on tiny colonial contracts that should warrant a company or two at most. We're actually _losing_ fucking cash on a lot of those according to Ven, he's in a mood too. We could afford to cancel at least a few of the trade runs and give me a reserve of ships to rotate through upgrades if they were paying what they should and if we weren't wasting troops that could be bringing in cash on other planets."

A pale hand rose to rub at his forehead. "...they're trying to build up goodwill for their long term goals."

"Yeah, but it's fucking _me_ over _now._ " I growled. "And it's fucking me over right before you're saying a war is coming. Massa won't listen to me, so I'm going to force her to act."

His expression became... displeased. "...This really isn't not the time for us to be infighting. Not with the Reapers coming and war so close."

"That's not the time to have a fleet in the shape ours is in either." I countered. "Look, if you tell me no I'm going to do it anyway, but it's going to be worse since I won't have a second Exec Com backing me up. I tried to get Ven to do it but that bastard still doesn't have a spine to stand up to her or especially Shaaryak... or do you want to go with my other idea where I install your ass back in that chair however I have to?"

"Goddess no." He said at once, looking ill at the very idea... though whether he was reacting to the idea of launching a coup against his old friend or at the idea of being the Director again, I wasn't sure. Probably both. "That's... dammit. All right, I'll talk to Ayle before we leave and see if I can convince her to knock if off with the discounts and wastage, and I'll back the idea of a loan from Lady T'Ravt as well. If she doesn't want to do either I'll back you if you decide that I badly need a small fleet to back my raids up."

I threw back the last bits in my glass as I hummed. It wasn't quite what I wanted, in truth I'd have been far happier with Cieran taking the Directorship back. I hadn't expected that I'd be able to talk him into it, and his reaction to me even broaching the subject had told me it wouldn't happen, but that had definitely been my best case scenario.

Still, reminding Massa that I was much more loyal to her predecessor than I was to her would be pretty solid slap in the face. A bit muted by Cie talking to her first, but a slap all the same. And considering that Cieran would never stand for me being removed from command I wasn't worried she'd try and remove me or anything so asinine.

And if she did... well, I was sure that my marines and Cieran's commandos could take Illium Minor back from the gangs who'd moved in easily enough. Dealing with Aria again would be annoying but she seemed like an almost benevolent alternative at the moment.

"Fine, deal. Where are we going anyway?"

"Anhur for starters." Cieran answered, "There's a nice band of pirates there who think that raiding the Verge and Tirrivan's supply lines make for good times. Aria wants an example made of them."

My lip curled downwards at that. "Meaning Voya's going to be let off her leash, isn't she?"

He gave me a sharp look. "I don't care for that metaphor, Joa."

I quickly held a hand up, "Athame's ass, you know I like the bitch, didn't mean anything by it. Just make sure you've got someone ready to wash her down before you let her on one of my ships."

From his expression he still wasn't happy, but he seemed to force himself to let it go. "We're going to need an evaluation of the fleet movements in that area, especially related to the Corsairs. I'd rather not get involved in a shooting war with the Alliance just because they noticed us and Lawson lurking about."

"Yeah," I sighed, "I'll get what I can for you. This going to be a hit and run or long term?"

"Anhur should be a quick search and destroy, but after that we're going to be moving to the outer edges of old Hegemony space and probably parking there for a bit." A hand rose to take my glass, and he poured us one last section of rum each. "There's a short list of people whose heads need to decorate Afterlife according to Aria, and she also wants us to poke around and see if we can corroborate Balak's claims regarding Reaper action."

"Sounds like we'll be busy then." I noted, "Think there's any chance for a fleet action? I'm not asking for one, Athame knows we don't need more damage to my bloody ships, but if there is I might need to bring more support vessels with."

"Goddess willing, no." He paused as he handed me my glass back before sighing. "But considering how much of a bitch the goddess is, best to bring them."

"Fair point." I said, doing my best to imitate his clipped inflections as I did.

His eyes narrowed to slits. "You want this rum or not?"

I held up my hands in surrender once more, and we finished the bottle before getting to work.

* * *

 **The Huntress**

 _Nikita Korolev_

 **Date** : 07-08-2187

 **Location** _:_ Zakera Ward, Citadel, Widow Nebula

* * *

They were getting bolder.

I stared through a window at a mannequin wearing a swimsuit that would have only barely covered an Asari, and probably wouldn't have entirely covered a Human woman. A few other people glanced at the high tier store, and a pair of young Maidens were likewise looking through the glass and doing a good job to help me blend in.

It was one of the rare cases where my... unique mental processes actually helped me rather than merely made me look insane.

While I could wonder if anyone would actually buy the stupid thing I was looking at, Detective Nikita could focus on the form in the periphery of my vision.

 _She notice us?_ I asked mentally, very careful not to speak the question aloud. Once and a while I still screwed up and did that, and it usually drew the kind of attention I didn't like.

 _Not yet._ Detective replied from the backseat of our brain. _She's still sitting on the same bench, just crowd watching. Might be best to move soon._

I made a quiet sound in my throat and slowly started walking, doing my best to look like just another bored, off duty Alliance officer meandering around the Citadel as she window-shopped. The uniform had been provided by Shepard to help with situations just like this one, something to make sure I looked less like myself than usual.

Though I had to keep resisting the urge to mess with my hat... I didn't care for hats.

Still, it was necessary. The target today was Helmyra B'Lori, a young matron of absolutely no repute whatsoever, whose resume included a variety of low-tier secretarial positions as well as the occasional stint as a bartender. By the standards of two and half century old Asari, she was almost mind numbingly boring... hell, by the standards of almost anyone she was fairly boring.

But one of those secretarial jobs had been on Thessia for clan T'Ravt, a job she'd held for most of the last eight years before quitting and requesting a visa to the Citadel. Once she'd arrived she'd tried and failed to work for the Consort, like most young Asari new to the station, and then taken up a bartender's post at a strip club.

The T'Ravt connection had set off the Shadow Broker's alarms, alarms that had then grown louder when she'd been spotted on the Presidium walking with people _far_ above her social station. The cover seemed to be the typical assumption of Asari promiscuity, B'Lori was pretty enough despite her boring career choices, but neither Aethyta nor Liara believed it. And neither did I for that matter, which was why I was helping tail her.

She was the fourth such agent sent since the Collector base, though the first that was trying to keep something like a low profile. The first three had been far more overt, relying on the fact that, while the T'Ravt clan was increasingly suspect in the eyes of aliens, among Asari they still represented the elite of the conservative-isolationist political bloc.

One had attempted to approach Councilor Tevos, and strangely hadn't even been allowed to board the _Destiny Ascension_ to see her. That had been odd but investigating the suddenly reclusive Councilor was Shepard's duty now, and my focus had been taken up by the second two agents. The next had, again, come under an official diplomatic visa, had quietly hired one of the Consort's human aides for a private session on her ship and then departed before the woman had even arrived.

The third agent hadn't stayed much longer, making a single aborted effort to be hired as an aide in the Asari offices in the Council Tower before likewise leaving the station. She, at least, had been tailed by a few of the Broker's agents, and the theory was that she'd spotted one and gotten spooked.

We still had no idea what had caused the second to abruptly leave... or what they were even doing here, which was why it was important we found a way to either legally detain the new arrival, or find a way to ask her questions impolitely without the authorities learning about it.

Of course either of those was going to be far easier said than done.

Making sure never to look at or even really near the target, I wandered past a Turian restaurant whose food would either leave me dead or wishing I was dead, and then settled in next to another high-priced clothing place. This one was aimed more at both Humans and Asari, thankfully, so the clothing was far less minimalist and thus something I could actually consider buying.

Both to enhance my cover a bit, and to actually have a wider variety of outfits.

"Typical; stupidly expensive." I muttered on seeing the price tag on the display blouse.

 _Not like there's anything else to spend the credits on... wait, the reflection, she's moving again._

I frowned and made no immediate effort to follow, though I did glance sideways at the glass so I could watch as she calmly began moving. _That was fast... dead drop under the bench maybe?_

 _Maybe, but this doesn't feel right. That's too public of a location for... shit_ Detective's mental voice grew tense. _I think they're onto us._

I blinked at that. _You're sure we didn't just miss-oh shit._

The two giggling maidens from before had taken up a spot near the same store, and though they seemed to be avidly conversing as they looked at the clothing, my other half quickly ran through everything wrong with the conversation. Their motions and smirks were almost identical to the ones they'd had at the prior store, and the whole came off as more of a routine than as anything natural.

Worse, one of them wasn't quite as good at field-craft as the other, and was keeping an oblique eye in my direction whenever she though she could get away with it.

 _How the fuck did Aethyta miss two extras?_ Detective growled.

"Later." I murmured, fighting the urge to lick my lips. "Take over."

I did so, feeling Emotional slide into the backseat as we smoothly swapped places, my more logical thoughts already running through the situation. There were two maidens on my left, in skimpy enough clothes that I didn't think they were concealing weapons, but Asari were never really disarmed. B'Lori was in a more professional looking business dress and likely had at least a pistol or a warp-sword on her.

Worse, she was now ahead of me with the other two behind. I had Kasumi available to back me up, but she was waiting to take the primary tailing spot at a sport's bar more than a hundred meters ahead, and if I called her they'd notice for sure.

Still, this was the Citadel, not Omega, so I had options.

Casually turning, I acted as though I hadn't noticed the two behind me, and began lazily trailing B'Lori as I had been for the last forty minutes. Not looking behind me was a risk but I didn't think they would be so insanely bold as to accost me in public, and my luck held long enough to get me to the nearest restaurant.

A Turian waiter acquiesced to my request for a seat near the back, where I had an excellent view of the doors. The table gave me enough cover to send off an emergency message, a quiet ping indicated that Kasumi was on her way to back me up, and I had an excellent view when, to my surprise, B'Lori double-backed rather than sending in the others.

My eyes narrowed further when the maiden breezily told the same waiter she was here to see me, breezed past him before he could say anything, and came strolling over to my table.

"Number sixteen," She spoke in the typical Thessian drawl, smirking as she dropped into the chair across from me. "So good to see you, I've heard so much about your exploits."

Fingers twitched as I kept my hands beneath the table, one already carefully drawing my sidearm from my uniform jacket. "Call me that again and you'll have a gaping hole where your azure should be."

The smirk widened, bitch knew she'd scored a hit. "My, your time in the uncivilized regions seems to have affected you most adversely. Launching such uncouth threats in public, and using such language as well."

I inhaled and exhaled very slowly, pushing Emotional back when she tried to take control, to handle the feelings I had a very had time dealing with. _Not now._

 _But-_

"What do you want?" I asked harshly. "Jaime is dead, so is the traitor who helped him, and Ciarán and I are both beyond you."

"No one is beyond the reach of the gods." She countered, though her voice lowered at the last words. "You should know that as well as anyone. To think you to the be Chosen Herald of their return, and yet you threw that away out of what? Petulance over not being allowed to bed the T'Soni heir?"

It was a sharply unpleasant reminder that I'd probably been forced to give more than one complete report and then forget I had done so during the hunt for Saren, and that such a report would have included my attraction to Liara... and how my compulsion to care for Garrus had put even more strain on me.

My anger spiked only for Emotional to shove me aside, my eyes half closing as I tried to calm down my racing heart and to grip my pistol less tightly

 _Christ you were about to shoot someone in broad daylight!_

 _She would fucking deserve it!_

I couldn't disagree but for God's sake we were in a freaking cafe! My attention was a bit divided, keeping my other half held down in the back of our head while I also tried to return verbal salvos. "If your gods are so powerful, how did a bunch of pirates, mercenaries, and gang-bangers manage to ruin their plans for Omega?"

B'Lori didn't have a very good poker face, the smirk vanishing into something like a snarl before she managed to compose herself. "An outcome caused by a group of traitors, aided by Varren too stupid to know their place in this galaxy."

"Not very good gods then," My voice lowered to a purr as Detective's anger morphed into vindictive pleasure, an emotion I entirely shared as I smirked. "If their plans can be screwed up by a pack of mere _aliens_."

The Asari seethed, her expression remaining unpleasant as I leaned forwards and continued, "Let's skip the insults and go back to my first question. What do you want?"

Her blue nose flared as she let out an angry breath, her voice carrying the same emotion. "The blessed Matriarch of the T'Ravt clan wishes to make it clear that this infighting serves no purpose with the approach of the machines. She is willing to forgive your prior transgressions... and to even return your final teammate to you, if you are able to see Shepard and your Councilor are able to collar the Terminus rabble."

I had to fight down the urge, both mine and Detective's, to reach across the table and grab her by the throat.

"Liar." I growled. "Even if Tuya is still alive that bitch would _never_ just return her like that. She'd either be insane like Jaime was, or even more loaded up with mental compulsions than me."

That damned smirk returned quickly as she quickly resumed feeding on my anger. "The Matriarch offers her personal assurance, and is even willing to ensure that the Republics actively assist in the battle with the machines."

 _Lies, lies, and more lies._ Detective muttered.

"Then she can come here and personally assure me." I replied, entirely in agreement with my other half. "If she's too busy worshiping giant squids to make the trip, that's her problem."

And just like that the anger surged into the Asari's features once more, making me wonder if she was about as mentally stable as I was. "Don't you _dare_ blaspheme like that."

"I'll say what I want about the things that raped my soul." I retaliated. "And I'll tell you this; No one is going to believe a word out of your Matriarch's mouth."

B'Lori's jaw clenched and then relaxed as she forced herself to calm enough to speak. "You presume to speak for all of your species in this? You will not even carry her offer to those with the authority to truly decide."

"Yes, I do, and no, I won't." I said flatly.

There was a sharp huff. "Fine, you want to condemn your people to death, then feel free. The galaxy will be better off without a bunch of short lived apes mucking about."

"If you're only going to insult me," I waved the hand not holding my gun on her stomach towards the exit, "Feel free to leave."

Her dark eyes seemed to light up. "Leave? But we haven't eaten yet... and we have so much catching up to do."

 _Ah, so that's what this is about._ Detective's mental sigh was tired. _And we walked right into it._

I was about to ask what she meant by that when B'Lori's voice lowered once more, "Velvet waves on a moonlit morning."

I stared blankly at her as she continued smirking. "What?"

Her smirk faltered as she blinked, repeating herself a little more forcefully. "Velvet waves on a moonlit morning."

For a moment I thought I felt a low throb of pain in my head, but it passed by so quickly it could have just been my imagination.

 _She's a disposable test._ Detective's voice was scathing, though her disgust was mostly directed at us for not realizing it earlier. _The Matriarch had to have realized we were hanging out with the T'Laria clan, she wanted to see if we'd found a way to try and patch things back together. She probably has a live line somewhere on B'Lori, someone else listening in._

"Ah... crap." I sighed. I wasn't really sure what advantage she'd get from realizing that my old compulsions were now buried as deeply as Ghai T'Laria had been able to manage, and mitigated further by the grey-box working to preserve and retain my memories rather than my corrupted mind. "We did walk into this."

B'Lori looked startled and increasingly worried, and she said the stupid code a third time, almost frantically, but I mostly tuned it out in favor of my own thoughts.

 _What do we do with this?_

Detective shrugged our shoulders, _I have no idea. Call in Kasumi and Aethyta's thug team I suppose, see if this idiot knows anything. Assuming the Matriarch didn't install a kill switch in her head or something equally horrible._

My stomach churned a little, _...poor idiot. What do you think she's going to do with this?_

 _If I had to guess? Make sure Tuya and whoever else she still has around can't be saved like we were._ Detective replied. _Either way, I think we should alert Ciarán and probably thank Miss T'Laria._

 _...agreed._

"I'll be seeing you." I said as I stood up, the maiden's hands clenching on the table.

"I didn't tell you to stand." She snarled, but the panic in her eyes was visible. She'd probably thought she could put me under the old information-dump compulsion, yell that I was having an attack or something as I just sat there rigidly, and leave in the commotion. That or try and get me to leave with her. "Sit! We're not done!"

Unfortunately for the Matriarch's agent, she'd caused too much of a commotion with the last few words and drawn the Turian waiter in our direction. "Ma'am, what's going on here?"

"An old girlfriend who thinks stalking me is the way to get back into my bed." I lied smoothly, "Do you mind if I move to the bar?"

"You bitch, I have never touched-" Her mouth clicked shut and she srhank back as the Turian rolled forwards a few steps, his sheer presence evidently reminded her that he was close to seven feet tall and she barely crested five "...an... alien..."

"Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to leave." His mandibles flicked rapidly as he shifted position once more, placing himself between me and the Asari as the restaurant went silent. "Now."

B'Lori worked her jaw for several moments, spat a curse, then rose and fled with very little dignity. The crowd murmured in amusement as she did, something that seemed to enrage her further as she exited, and I saw my omni-tool flash once. A glance showed a message from Kasumi indicating she'd been lurking at the entrance, and was now in pursuit.

I smiled and shut it down, stepping forwards to gently put a hand on the waiter's arm as he pushed in the chairs at our old table and tried to straighten them. "Thank you very much for that."

"It was no problem officer." He replied, nearly making me smile as I realized that Turian's views on military authority had done more than anything else to make him aid me. "I apologize for not questioning her further when she first arrived."

"It's all right." I assured him, "If you could put in an order for a martini? I'll be at the end of the bar right over there."

"Of course ma'am."

* * *

 _ **Silver Blades Communications Log**_

 _Kean, Cieran: Too much to ask for that bitch to keep laying low._

 _Korolev, Nikita: I entirely agree... but if she's after me she's probably going to be investigating you too._

 _Kean, Cieran: Thanks for the warning, but I'm going to be on the move the next few months. If she can keep up with me she's even more connected than we thought. Any signs of the twins Krom got out, or Tuya?_

 _Korolev, Nikita: Nothing aside from the moronic offer. If I had to guess, the twins are either dead or gone to ground... Jaime got them out in the middle of the Terminus War and their trail went cold between Omega and the Stormwall._

 _Kean, Cieran: Damn... all right. You sure you want to keep doing this balancing act? Mount Shepard will probably erupt if she finds out you're still communicating with me._

 _Korolev, Nikita: Unlike you I actually have friends here, and at least half of me would much rather stay on the Citadel than go back to your end of space._

 _Kean Cieran: Mmm, suppose that's true. Still, Lawson wanted me to-_

 _Korolev, Nikita: If she merges with the SBC I'll think about it, but I'm never going anywhere near a group with that logo on it._

 _Kean, Cieran: ...I'll pass on the message._

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes**_

 _And we continue to draw closer. Quick reminder here that the Blades aren't exactly the same thing as a properly running nation, especially given their recent expansions that have left them quite overextended in certain areas, and a nod to the fact that withdrawing from Omega and relocating to Novgorod has had severe short-term consequences for their economy._

 _Next chapter we'll get some violence as the first commando missions take place, and we'll get setup for the final four chapter section which will presage the next and final story of the series._

 **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**

 _ **Thanks, Kat**_


	12. Operation: Long Echoes IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

 **Operation: Long Echoes**

* * *

 _ **Devout Disciple**_

 _Aya ul Vessan, Lancer SL_

 **Date:** 08-10-2187

 **Location:** Kh'thal, Anhur, Attican Traverse

* * *

If I had learned anything during my time as a mercenary commando, it was that there were few problems that could not be solved by ramming a vehicle into them.

Or, in the case of a pirate base with insufficient anti-aircraft defenses, a few dozen vehicles.

"All teams advance per plan one." I ordered as the final trio of hacked aircars came roaring down, their old engines pushed far beyond their limits. One failed entirely before it could reach its target, abruptly plummeting into the soil just outside of the compound's walls, while the other pair held on long enough to instead make their terminal dives into the roof of a warehouse.

The building had been a cheep prefab, not intended for any kind of military use, and the aircraft had no problems ripping through the thin roof before striking the ground somewhere inside. The explosives we had packed into the noses of the flying wrecks did their jobs, setting off the various stolen munitions stored inside, and the entire structure disintegrated beneath an orange-red fireball.

"Well now," Arush's voice emerged from his helmet beside me, the lowborn Male acting as my de-facto Half-Squad Leader, though Lancer teams technically had no such position. "Isn't that a pretty sight?"

Muted chuckles came from the remainder of my unit, all of them following my lead as I set off at a quick pace towards the chaos and fires, departing from behind the suburban home we'd been using as cover. I didn't need to look at my helmet's rear camera view to know that the civilians who'd been cowering inside were happy to see us go, and probably re-barricading their doors once more.

"Arush," I ordered as we began to pick up the pace, none of the pirates ahead any the wiser for our approach. Not that I could blame them, even a paragon from the Pillar of Knowledge would have struggled to maintain focus against the chaos we'd thrown at them. "Take Wokim and Vekka right once we're inside the compound. Get Wokim's LMG setup on that tower while you two cover him."

"Understood." He rumbled, shifting that way along with the Quarian and Turian members of the team. "Standard rules?"

"Yes." I replied, authorizing him to kill anything that moved provided it wasn't obviously wearing a slave's collar. "Jurgen, Telle, we're moving for the primary target. Jurgen has lead."

My pride surged a little as the two aliens merely clicked their mics once, the Human male accelerating ahead of me as he returned his carbine to his back and replaced it with the shotgun that enabled him to act as our vanguard.

Still, we weren't quite the perfect machine that was the _Reyja'krem_ 's personal team, and I needed to make a quick gesture to send Telle on ahead to cover him as neared what had once been the compound's gates, and now more resembled a burning scrap pile with the occasional body.

"Teams Six and Seven, status." I requested, speaking over Jurgen putting a round into one of the bodies as we moved past, the man evidently not quite dead yet.

" _Team six has entered via the western gate_." The always professional Certia Hellarian replied at once. " _Proceeding towards shuttle pads... firefighters ahead, engaging_."

Gunfire began to crack in time with her final word, partially obscuring the next voice.

" _Vessan, Chyel."_ My neck twitched to the right at the lack of respect, but I had come to expect as much from team seven's leader. The fool still seemed to think that his midcaste birth meant something out here, though he had never yet crossed the line into insubordination. " _Our gate looks abandoned as well, just a couple of locals sightseeing. Heading for the main barracks."_

"Confirmed." I replied shortly, stepping over the wrecked gate itself and getting my first good look at the interior beyond the smoke and fire.

It was, like most pirate bases, a rough mix of ramshackle salvage and fairly modern pre-fabs; whatever was cheap and available, and wouldn't be overly missed when the group inevitably moved on. The pirates themselves, an assortment of Humans and fellow Batarians, were in an understandable state of panic and slow to react the gunfire joining the sounds of fire and incidental explosions.

Hefting my carbine, I fire a snap shot to my left at the first pirate I saw. The Human buckled and went down in the middle of trying to pull on some kind of fire-fighting suit, his two companions screaming as they realized we were present and very much not on their side.

The screams ended quickly beneath the fire of Jurgen's weapon, the light shotgun barking three times in rapid succession to put them both down as well. Behind him and a bit to our right, Telle glowed briefly before casting a hand forwards. The maiden's biotics were relatively weak by Asari standards, but she could still manage a minor Singularity, and the effect hauled a trio of pirates who'd been quick enough on the uptake to try and take cover.

"Thank you Telle." I hummed as I fired over her shoulder, one shot apiece turning unarmored torsos into explosions of blood and viscera that made interesting patterns as they circled the biotic effect.

"No problem boss." She said, returning her weapon to a two handed grip as we both turned to engage several more locals drawn by the sound of gunshots.

That was about when the initial shock and confusion began to wear off, probably as our principle target managed to assert some level of command and control over his forces. We only managed to eliminate one of the newer arrivals before the remainder turned and fled as rapidly as they could, no doubt to try and retrieve their armor and full combat gear to best repel the sudden assault.

We cut down several more as they fled, but there were more of them still alive than I had anticipated. Most of them must have not been in the buildings we'd thought residential in nature, that or we had simply not picked out the right targets thanks to the rather rushed nature of our planning. That was doubly irritating since I had committed most of our stolen vehicles to those structures specifically out of a desire to cut down on the number of enemies we would encounter.

I quickly throttled the frustration. I knew as well as anyone that no plan survived contact with the true battle, that was why we made so many of them in advance. A single mistake would not doom my first action commanding multiple Lancer teams, not so long as I reacted appropriately.

"Arush," I said as we reached one of the doors at the main structure, an ugly dome of a pre-fab that had evidently been reinforced with enough armor to hold off the suicide taxis that we had thrown at it. Which meant that instead of simply confirming the kill we'd have to do it ourselves.

Fucking _complications_.

"Confirm enemy numbers."

 _"More than I thought, and they're starting to organize and move towards my flanks."_ My second in command reported at once, agreeing with my unsaid thoughts. " _We must have misidentified our targets."_

"Switch to plan three, retreat point is guard tower three." When he clicked his mic, I continued speaking, "Wokim, prepare to cover them and act as rear guard. Chyel! Confirm your team is in place at the barracks, and that you can enact plan three."

To his credit, the normally annoying man responded promptly, gravelly voice raised to be heard over a steady barrage of gunfire. _"Can do, we're stalled at the mess hall but are keeping them away from the armory. Locals will probably object if we try and fill it with explosives though!"_

"Chastise them, and be quick about it." I ordered. "We have a schedule to keep."

There was a bark of laughter as he cut the line, a sound that Telle echoed as she ran a quick by-pass on the door's lock and got it open. A brightly lit though grimy hallway stretched out before us, as well as greeting us to the sight of a squad of pirates in makeshift armor rushing directly towards the doorway we were now silhouetted in.

The position didn't give us much cover, but it was a great deal better than the complete lack of protection that the enemy could claim as they rand down the hall.

Jurgen fell to one knee and shifted to one side, allowing me to fire over his head while Telle took cover on the other side of the entryway. Two carbines and a shotgun began to fire in rhythm as we settled ourselves, the pirates retaliating with a mixed barrage of sub-machine guns and shotguns. Their aim was surprisingly solid, my shields losing nearly half of their strength quickly, but as usual with such rabble their cohesion fell apart as soon as their own limited barriers cracked.

Our heavy slugs had no issue tearing through their ragged armor, and after two of them went down the remainder turned to flee. We took down another before they reached a corner, and a signal from me saw us begin a quick advance.

We had just reached that same corner, and I was bringing up a general blueprint of this building type when an override communication cracked the speakers in the back of my helmet.

" _Aya_." The former Director's cool voice made my back tighten slightly on reflex. " _Situation report."_

"We have breached the compound and are making progress." I said, my subordinates needing no orders to take a look at their own maps, then set off towards the probable location of the command center while I followed. "More survived the initial attack than anticipated, we have shifted to plan three."

There was the tiniest of pauses, as he no doubt recalled that plan, " _Very well. The Nightblades have eliminated their target, shuttles are en route to your extraction zone. They will defend it until your arrival."_

I fought down the competitive urge to seethe in displeasure at not accomplishing our objective first. The three groups of assassins had always been far more likely to eliminate their own targets before we could, given that we were assaulting the largest band being allowed to operate from the world while they had merely been tasked with eliminating those local politicians who had allowed Anhur to become a pirate base to begin with.

"Understood sir, we will be done momentarily."

" _Local authorities are scrambling to deal with a few gifts the Nightblades left behind, but we don't want to wear out our welcome."_ He ordered. " _Move at speed but be cautious regarding your primary target_ , o _f all of the ones present he is the most likely to be compromised in some way, if you need to conduct plan four you have permission in advance."_

"Yes, honored Reyja'krem." My words came as gunfire emerged from a set of doorways ahead of us, and my own weapon rose to reply in kind.

Unfortunately the pirates ahead must have been the same set who'd been smart enough to retreat when they'd realized their awful position in the hallway, and had taken up appropriate defensive positions. My shots struck a target's shoulder, drawing sparks from their barrier, but they were ducking pack before I could attempt to breach them... and a new opponent was shifting into their place, a rapid-firing shotgun filling the hall with slugs and forcing us back and into side-rooms that we'd bypassed.

"At least they didn't make a stand here." Telle muttered as she flinched back, "What's the plan SL?"

"Keep them pinned." I ordered as I adjusted my communicator, "Team Six, Seven, we've located the primary command center but are currently held up."

There was a crashing sound somewhere nearby, then Certia replied, " _We're in hall four, on your right, think we have at least a half-squad opposing us as well."_

 _"Still at the armory."_ Chyel reported, his deep voice booming as a grenade went off somewhere, " _Setting the last charges now."_

Meaning he wasn't going to arrive here for several minutes, at best, which more or less crippled the multi-attack vector of plan three. Which meant either re-adjusting to one of the original concepts, staying in place, or utilizing the fact that the Director had already given me permission.

"Finish your task then withdraw per plan three. Certia, we're adjusting once again. Plan four authorized."

" _...confirm plan four?"_ Certia asked, sounded more than a little surprised.

"Speed is now our principle concern, not interrogating the target, and they have no visible biotics. Enact plan four, contingency two!" I snapped back. "Authorized from Lancer Lead was given!"

To her credit she didn't bother questioning me further, instead clicking her mic once before speaking. " _Confirmed, going to four."_

"Standard sequence then we rush." I ordered my teammates, "Telle, switch with me."

She nodded once, rocking back and then darting forwards on my signal, the pair of us crossing the hall and taking up positions so that Jurgen and I would be properly across from her. A quick roll of her shoulders later and she gave us the hand sign that she was ready... and then the pair of us began to alternate lobbing grenades for her to hurl down-range via her biotics.

The sequence had been worked out in advance, and I was proud of Jurgen for remember it exactly despite this only being one of many back-up concepts we'd drilled on the way over. A nullification grenade went first, lack of visible enemy biotics or not I wasn't going to take chances, and it exploded in a muffled crack and ensured that nothing could be seriously done about the next sequence.

A heavy dampening model exploded in a flurry of electrical arcs, tearing apart whatever shields they had as the lighting in the hall and began blowing out in sections as it did it's job, and it was quickly followed by a flash-bang to keep the enemy stunned and unable to clear the blast zones.

Which meant they were hopefully still right in the doorway when two fragmentation grenades followed them up, their explosions echoing wildly inside the enclosed space. Screaming and bellowing came hard behind them, even as more grenades began to go off as Certia's team likewise opted to ignore potential collateral damage in favor of simply obliterating everything in their way.

My advance was uncontested until I reached the room proper, the former pirate command center resembling nothing so much as a brightly lit charnal house. None of the holographic displays had survived, though several were still attempting to project their data which left blue and green light playing wildly across the room while sparks shot from destroyed equipment.

The floor was coated in both Human and Batarian blood, and the moans of the wounded and dying filled the air. From the looks of things the pirates had more or less grouped up around two of the four entrances, doing their best to stay out of our sight while being ready to hold us off, and that had left them more or less perfectly grouped up for the grenades we'd thrown.

Certia and half of team Six came in as I executed the first wounded target, and single shots began to drum out in good order as we dealt with the remainder.

"Found him." The Asari SL called out as she checked a pile of bodies in the corner, "...dammit, fragments took his throat."

In spite of everything I grimaced a little. Yes, I'd been given permission to kill him instead of trying to take him alive as per the original plan, but still.. I'd hoped. "Take any omni-tool you can, then let's get out of here. I'll contact the Dir... I'll contact Lancer Lead and inform him."

* * *

 _ **The Silver Blade**_

 _Cieran Kean_

 **Date:** 08-10-2187

 **Location:** _SBS Reliant_ , Orbiting Anhur, Attican Traverse

* * *

"Well this was a general waste of time." I muttered, doing my best not to glower at the bridge's main holographic display and failing miserably at the data coming across.

It hadn't taken much to breach the security, if you could even call it that, on the various omni-tools and tablets that had been taken. The Trophy Taker on team Seven, Halia my gray-box reminded me, had cracked most of them open before all of the shuttles had even rendezvoused in atmosphere.

Which let us know... exactly nothing we didn't already know, save for the monstrous egos of the idiots we'd just slaughtered.

Beside me, Joa let out a quiet grunt around her pipe, puffing out a white cloud of smoke before she replied, "Look on the bright side, for once there weren't any fucking complications. No husks, no indoctrinated shit, no crazy human terrorists running around... just a pack of idiots who thought that they could defy Aria just because they're nowhere near her."

I sighed and shook my head, "I suppose that's fair, but we still just broadcast the fact that we're active to the entire goddess-damned Traverse and for what? A dozen idiotic small timers we could have just sent the Nightblades down to handle. Or fucking ignored entirely, these _keshin_ would have drowned on their own quickly enough."

My old friend pursed her blue lips together tightly. "Yeah... fuck, you don't think my bitch of a mother set this up do you? Try and get us too close to a Corsair group or something?"

"I wouldn't put it past her, but no. Miranda has a good handle on the Corsairs and if she says we're in a clear window then I trust her. I think... fuck, I think was just Aria's paranoia getting the better of her."

Which I couldn't exactly blame her for, considering that the Black Queen had some very fucking good reasons for being as insanely paranoid as she was. In this case though it seemed that it had made her, and her intelligence types whoever they were, get a little too concerned about a group of pirates acting against her orders and still raiding worlds in the Skyllian Verge. Combine that idiocy with the fact that half of them were very recent exiles from the once-again-falling-apart Hegemony, and someone had gotten worried that they may be indoctrinated agents acting to destabilize the Traverse even more than it already was.

So instead of doing things quiet and slow, we'd shown up in the outer system and obliterated a pirate staging base while the more green units had been sent down to deal with matters quickly and directly.

Voya hadn't been thrilled about not going with, neither had Mirala or Jacqueline, and I'd had to put my foot down pretty firmly. Aya, Certia, and Chyel had needed the independent experience in ways that our older commanders definitely didn't, and since Illyan was aboard I didn't want to risk setting back her mental recovery by running off and getting involved in the first fight we came across without her.

"Soon as the teams are back aboard I want to be out of here." I shook my head once more, "And let's fuck being subtle for now. Make it clear we're headed towards the Hegemony."

Joa let out a nearly masculine grunt, "Sending a message to Shepard?"

"I don't think she'll be interested in anything I could possibly say," I replied dryly, "But there's at least some kind of chance she may not bother chasing us if she knows we're headed for Batarian space. She knows me well enough to know the only reason we'd go there is to kill people and investigate Reaper involvement."

She nodded, bringing her omni-tool up and shifting our view to a map of the region. "Who is on the hit list first?"

I watched as she updated it with the target list that Aria had given us. "...let's head for Haak'val first. I think we'll skip anything subtle there, it's supposed to be solidly in the rebel camp against Balak, so I'm going to leave that to you."

"You want precision or just to flatten the place?"

"At least make an effort." I rolled a shoulder in a shrug, "Let's not add to the number of items on our C-Sec warrants."

That drew a snort form her, and muted chuckles and smiles from the bridge officers close enough to hear us. "Right, I'll try to vaporize just whatever fat _chenethic_ we're out to kill. Rest of these guys though... they're a bit deeper into the Hegemony."

"Yeah." I sighed and rubbed at my neck... dammit, I needed to shave again. "From there... here, Orthul. If Nynsi's last reports are correct some midcaste woman managed to seize control of the place. Small, out of the way, we can put in there and then split up to hit Ner'keka and Ghegan, assuming our targets are still there."

It was Joa's turn to scratch at her chin, puffing a bit on her pipe as she thought about it. "Could work so long as we don't end up in the middle of some kind of offensive."

"What's left to launch one?" I asked. "This is their second civil war in the last couple of years, most of the fleet is gone or gone pirate at this point. I think Balak only has one bloody dreadnought left and I don't know if any of the Ha'diq rebelling against him even have that much."

"Fair point," She smirked a little when I glowered at the phrase, "But still Cie, we're not exactly running around with a battle fleet, and if we so much as scratch the paint then Massa will explode like a bloody volcano."

I winced a little, Ayle had pretty much already exploded during the conversation that I'd had with her in advance of this little expedition. To say that she'd taken Joa's ultimatum well, even soften and delivered by proxy, would have been a blatant lie.

It hadn't helped that it hadn't taken Ayle any effort at all to piece together that Joa wasn't far off from either trying a coup to put me back into place, regardless of my feelings, or simply quitting the company altogether and taking the majority of the combat fleet with her. Practically speaking Ayle hadn't had much of a choice _but_ to submit and let Joa head off with me and to accede to her demands that we take loans from Lady T'Ravt so we could start a rapid overhaul of the remaining ships.

 _Personally_ speaking however, whatever working relationship had once existed between the two had been utterly obliterated. Joa had attacked Ayle's pride and power, even if she'd mostly done it privately, and she'd managed to score a vicious wound on both. I had no idea how the fuck things were going to look when we got back to Novgorod, and I didn't doubt for a moment that I was going to be stuck looking over Joa's shoulder on Ayle's behalf for the foreseeable future... and I was becoming increasingly uncertain as to whether or not the Silver Blades would actually come out of the upcoming war as a unified group.

But then again... I was growing beyond the point of caring. I had done my part, had put people I trusted in the positions they'd desired to maintain it. If they couldn't get along and let it all wash out to sea... well, such was life in this Athame cursed galaxy.

"We'll just have to be fast and quiet once we get there." I shrugged once more, "I'll take half the teams, Mirala can take the other half. You pick out a good empty system where you can drop charge and lay low while we hit the targets, then we go full sails to get back home and see who is going to threaten us next."

"Works for me."

* * *

 _ **Silver Blades Communications Log**_

 _Korolev, Nikita: I have to ask, do you even understand the concept of subtlety? Should I pay Kasumit to slip a dictionary into your room?_

 _Kean, Cieran: ...I think I liked you better when Voya intimidated you._

 _Korolev, Nikita: You're lucky Shepard is stuck on another assignment or she'd already be tearing off after you. What was even on Anhur that was so important you left your hideout?_

 _Kean, Cieran: Orders from Aria, dealing with a few idiots who think this is the perfect time to step up raids and maybe start another blitz._

 _Korolev, Nikita: ...ah. She didn't exactly give you a choice, did she? Didn't you make a deal with the Empress or something to try and stop that?_

 _Kean, Cieran: T'Ravt might have backed me but she was in agreement in this case. It's crap that has to be handled._

 _Korolev, Nikita: Well shit._

 _Kean, Cieran: Yeah, pretty much. Did you get anything else?_

 _Korolev, Nikita: Just a single security still from the SA embassy on Thessia that might be Tuya, but we're in agreement that it's probably just bait to try and draw one of us in that direction. Kasumi volunteered to check it out but I told her no._

 _Kean, Cieran: Smart move._

 _Kean, Cieran: Going to be out of contact for a while. I know you don't care for her, but if you find anything on the twins, or get any additional leads contact Chambers via the dead drop I gave you._

 _Korolev, Nikita: No promises._

* * *

 _ **Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."**_

Thanks, Kat


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